Combustible Dust Testing

Laboratory testing to quantify dust explosion and reactivity hazards

Safety Data Sheets

Develop critical safety data for inclusion in SDS documents

Gas and Vapor

Laboratory testing to quantify explosion hazards for vapor and gas mixtures

UN-DOT
Classification of hazardous materials subject to shipping and storage regulations
Hydrogen
Testing and consulting on the explosion risks associated with devices and processes which use or produce hydrogen
Safety Data Sheets

Develop critical safety data for inclusion in SDS documents

Thermal Stability

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

Adiabatic Calorimetry
Data demonstrate the consequences of process upsets, such as failed equipment or improper procedures, and guide mitigation strategies including Emergency Relief System (ERS) design
Reaction Calorimetry
Data yield heat and gas removal requirements to control the desired process chemistry
Battery Safety

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

Safety Data Sheets

Develop critical safety data for inclusion in SDS documents

Cable Testing
Evaluate electrical cables to demonstrate reliability and identify defects or degradation
Equipment Qualification (EQ)
Testing and analysis to ensure that critical equipment will operate under adverse environmental conditions
Water Hammer
Analysis and testing to identify and prevent unwanted hydraulic pressure transients in process piping
Acoustic Vibration
Identify and eliminate potential sources of unwanted vibration in piping and structural systems
Gas & Air Intrusion
Analysis and testing to identify and prevent intrusion of gas or air in piping systems
ISO/IEC 17025:2017

Fauske & Associates fulfills the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 in the field of Testing

ISO 9001:2015
Fauske & Associates fulfills the requirements of ISO 9001:2015
Dust Hazards Analysis
Evaluate your process to identify combustible dust hazards and perform dust explosion testing
On-Site Risk Management
On-site safety studies can help identify explosibility and chemical reaction hazards so that appropriate testing, simulations, or calculations are identified to support safe scale up
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 safely handle the effluent discharge from an overpressure event

FATE™ & Facility Modeling

FATE (Facility Flow, Aerosol, Thermal, and Explosion) is a flexible, fast-running code developed and maintained by Fauske and Associates under an ASME NQA-1 compliant QA program.

Mechanical, Piping, and Electrical
Engineering and testing to support safe plant operations and develop solutions to problems in heat transfer, fluid, flow, and electric power systems
Hydrogen Safety
Testing and consulting on the explosion risks associated with devices and processes which use or produce hydrogen
Thermal Hydraulics
Testing and analysis to ensure that critical equipment will operate under adverse environmental conditions
Nuclear Safety
Our Nuclear Services Group is recognized for comprehensive evaluations to help commercial nuclear power plants operate efficiently and stay compliant
Radioactive Waste
Safety analysis to underpin decomissioning process at facilities which have produced or used radioactive nuclear materials
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

Facility Siting Assessments

Posted by Fauske & Associates on 09.02.21

Facility-Siting-Assessment-GuysThe Fauske Onsite Safety Studies group (OSS) is active across a number of industries, performing both DHA and PHA studies. A site assessment can involve a number of cross discipline elements to assess the costs, risks and health of the occupants. The various elements focus on the identification of hazards, the characterization of those hazards and delivering a mitigation strategy. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric Company, we support Westinghouse on nuclear fire safety studies and have access to risk analysis experts who can support non-nuclear site assessments.

Westinghouse and Fauske have collaborated on many site assessments. Most recently the team is working on a fire hazards assessment (FHA). The FHA evaluates potential fire hazards and appropriate fire protection systems and features used to mitigate the effects of a fire in any waste management location. The FHA will be performed to demonstrate that the waste management maintains the ability to safely maintain operation or shut down if operations cannot be maintained while minimizing radioactive material releases to the environment in the event of a fire. FHA work for nuclear facilities is based on NUREG-1805.

This type of assessment combines skills from walkdowns, fire PRA such as the use of fire modeling tools, and explosion analysis. Fauske investigates three explosion hazards: (1) Explosion of fuels, solvents, dust, and other transient materials that may be present, (2) Explosion hazards associated with radiolytically generated gases, and (3) Explosion hazards associated with decomposition/heating of organic ion exchange resins.

Explosions and fires may be correlated and, in many instances an explosion can precede (trigger) or follow a fire event. While it is expected that the explosion mechanism will result in a more bounding screening distance values (SDV), the fire mechanism is generally evaluated. For the fire mechanism, our team identifies fixed or transient sources where the initiating event could impact the plant, considering immediate impact, propagation, impacts of smoke/soot on site ventilation systems and impacts on offsite power equipment.

A secondary effect of fire is smoke and aerosolized particulates (soot) which can disrupt operations through impact on plant personnel, require fire brigades to protect facilities, impose limitations on outdoor operations and impact HVAC through particulate clogging of HVAC filters.

Transitory fire events consider the impact of human activity in surrounding areas that may directly or indirectly be the cause of fires.

The overall assessment is documented in a detailed report which identifies any deficiencies, recommends solutions, and provides suggestions for improvement.

For more information on how fire hazards and other evaluations can support a site assessment, please visit: https://www.fauske.com/blog/what-is-a-facility-siting-assessment

Contact Us

Westinghouse and Fauske are established global leaders in working with the nuclear industry to provide deterministic fire support including fire hazard analyses. Examples of past support include AP1000 nuclear power plant and Columbia fuel fabrication facility. These projects involved characterizing the types of fires that could occur in the facility, the suppression and detection systems available, and the firefighting response from personnel. As part of these hazard analyses, Westinghouse provided insights to improve personnel safety at the sites, as well as identify vulnerabilities from a plant operability perspective. Westinghouse is familiar with characterizing fire hazards posed to industrial sites, identifying vulnerabilities, and providing recommendations to improve plant operation.

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