Hazards Analysis, Code Compliance & Procedure Development

Services to identify process safety hazards and facilitate compliance with established standards and codes.

Combustible Dust Testing

Laboratory testing to quantify dust explosion and reactivity hazards

Flammable Gas & Vapor Testing

Laboratory testing to quantify explosion hazards for vapor and gas mixtures

Chemical Reactivity Testing

Laboratory testing to quantify reactive chemical hazards, including the possibility of material incompatibility, instability, and runaway chemical reactions

ISO Accreditation and Scope
Fauske & Associates fulfills the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 in the field of Testing
DIERS Methodology

Design emergency pressure relief systems to mitigate the consequences of unwanted chemical reactivity and account for two-phase flow using the right tools and methods

Deflagrations (Dust/Vapor/Gas)

Properly size pressure relief vents to protect your processes from dust, vapor, and gas explosions

Effluent Handling

Pressure relief sizing is just the first step and it is critical to safety handle the effluent discharge from an overpressure event

Thermal Stability

Safe storage or processing requires an understanding of the possible hazards associated with sensitivity to variations in temperature

UN-DOT

Classification of hazardous materials subject to shipping and storage regulations

Safety Data Sheets

Develop critical safety data for inclusion in SDS documents

Biological

Model transport of airborne virus aerosols to guide safe operations and ventilation upgrades

Radioactive

Model transport of contamination for source term and leak path factor analysis

Fire Analysis

Model transport of heat and smoke for fire analysis

Flammable or Toxic Gas

transport of flammable or toxic gas during a process upset

OSS consulting, adiabatic & reaction calorimetry and consulting

Onsite safety studies can help identify explosibility and chemical reaction hazards so that appropriate testing, simulations, or calculations are identified to support safe scale up

Mechanical, Piping, and Electrical

Engineering and testing to support safe plant operations and develop solutions to problems in heat transfer, fluid flow, electric power systems

Battery Safety

Testing to support safe design of batteries and electrical power backup facilities particularly to satisfy UL9540a ed.4

Hydrogen Safety

Testing and consulting on the explosion risks associated with devices and processes which use or produce hydrogen

Spent Fuel

Safety analysis for packaging, transport, and storage of spent nuclear fuel

Decommissioning, Decontamination and Remediation (DD&R)

Safety analysis to underpin decommissioning process at facilities which have produced or used radioactive nuclear materials

Laboratory Testing & Software Capabilities

Bespoke testing and modeling services to validate analysis of DD&R processes

Nuclear Overview

Our Nuclear Services Group is recognized for comprehensive evaluations to help commercial nuclear power plants operate efficiently and stay compliant.

Severe Accident Analysis and Risk Assessment

Expert analysis of possible risk and consequences from nuclear plant accidents

Thermal Hydraulics

Testing and analysis to ensure that critical equipment will operate under adverse environmental conditions

Environmental Qualification (EQ) and Equipment Survivability (ES)

Testing and analysis to ensure that critical equipment will operate under adverse environmental conditions

Laboratory Testing & Software Capabilities

Testing and modeling services to support resolution of emergent safety issues at a power plant

Adiabatic Safety Calorimeters (ARSST and VSP2)

Low thermal inertial adiabatic calorimeters specially designed to provide directly scalable data that are critical to safe process design

Other Lab Equipment and Parts for the DSC/ARC/ARSST/VSP2 Calorimeters

Products and equipment for the process safety or process development laboratory

FERST

Software for emergency relief system design to ensure safe processing of reactive chemicals, including consideration of two-phase flow and runaway chemical reactions

FATE

Facility modeling software mechanistically tracks transport of heat, gasses, vapors, and aerosols for safety analysis of multi-room facilities

Blog

Our highly experienced team keeps you up-to-date on the latest process safety developments.

Process Safety Newsletter

Stay informed with our quarterly Process Safety Newsletters sharing topical articles and practical advice.

Resources

With over 40 years of industry expertise, we have a wealth of process safety knowledge to share.

Recent Posts

Combustible Dust Hazards Analysis (DHA) Testing Lab And Education Center

Posted by The Fauske Team on 01.31.17

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Fauske & Associates (FAI), a leader in nuclear, industrial and chemical process safety, has one of the most comprehensive, state-of-the-art combustible dust hazards analysis (DHA) testing lab and education centers in the world. With regard to industrial and chemical process safety, FAI is at the forefront for dust explosivity/combustibility testing offering a wide range of services related to characterizing, preventing and mitigating combustible dust explosions and fire hazards. In addition to laboratory testing, educational training and on-site consulting services are a frequent customer request.

“Our updated lab gives us the ability to provide very fast, high quality output for our partners and clients,” states Ashok Ghose Dastidar, PhD, MBA, Vice President, Dust & Flammability Testing and Consulting Services. “We are ISO 17025 certified by LAB, which is similar to ISO 9000, but for testing labs. We have a variety of test equipment, including 20-L chambers, Minimum Ignition Energy (MIE) chambers, 1 Cubic Meter (1m³) Chamber, Minimum Autoignition Temperature of a Dust Cloud (MIT) and Hot Surface Ignition Temperature of Dust Layers (LIT) apparatuses. We also have a designated area for European (CEN) testing. FAI’s new overall lab size and individual room structure allows us to handle multiple samples with unique characteristics.”

FAI’s lab capabilities provide testing per ASTM and European (CEN) standards, which include common tests like the Explosion Severity Test - (KSt , Pmax and (dP/dt)max), Minimum Ignition Energy (MIE), the Minimum Explosible Concentration (MEC) and Limiting Oxygen Concentration (LOC). These standards are the basis of NFPA codes for combustible dust as well as the OSHA Combustible Dust National Emphasis Program (NEP).

“The 1 Cubic Meter (1m³) Chamber is the gold standard for establishing KSt and Pmax values for dust cloud explosions – while common in Europe, it is only the second unit of its kind in all of North America,” states Dr. Dastidar. “The laboratory provides the ideal educational/training resource center as FAI professionals can demonstrate for customers the proper way to sample, test and mitigate combustible dust and other hazards.”

Combustible dust hazards are common in industry and have gained additional exposure due to the OSHA Combustible Dust (NEP) which was re-issued as a result of the fatal accident at Imperial Sugar. FAI’s process safety professionals serve clients in a variety of industries including food products, pharmaceuticals, metal processing, wood/paper products, agriculture, textiles, plastics and many others.

Founded in 1980 by Hans Fauske (D.Sc.), Michael Grolmes (PhD) and Robert Henry (PhD), FAI became a wholly owned subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric Co. in 1986. FAI assumed early leadership roles in the acclaimed DIERS program for AIChE and the IDCOR program for the nuclear power industry. These activities led to state-of-the-art methodology and laboratory tools for characterizing chemical systems and computer models for analyzing severe accidents in commercial nuclear power plants used worldwide. Recognized worldwide for phenomenological modeling related to the prevention and accommodation of chemical and nuclear power accidents, FAI also provides advanced training and research in physics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, nuclear engineering, computer science and other fields. FAI has several fully staffed laboratories supporting: EQ, CHAMP, full-scale thermal/hydraulics experiments, and basic physical sciences. FAI has a 10CFR50 Appendix B Quality Assurance (QA) Program and is ISO- 17025/IEC, ISO-9001 and TickIT certified. 

FAI is also recognized for conducting comprehensive plant evaluations. FAI’s Nuclear Systems Group helps its customers enhance the availability and reliability of their operating plants while maintaining regulatory compliance, extending plant life and reducing operation and maintenance costs.

Topics: MARS

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