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

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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
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Hydrogen Safety
Testing and consulting on the explosion risks associated with devices and processes which use or produce hydrogen
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Testing and analysis to ensure that critical equipment will operate under adverse environmental conditions
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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

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Published September 7, 2017

10 Tips for Setting up an ARSST Test to Yield Good Thermal Data


  • 1. Prior to each test, perform electrical resistance checks on the temperature and heater glands as well as the thermocouple and heater.
  • 2. When installing the foil layer around the heater and heater belt, ensure that the test cell is evenly coated and press firmly around the whole configuration so the foil lies flatly against the cell. This improves heat transfer to the cell evenly.
  • 3. Make sure to ground the thermocouple and vessel to the control box and house ground to lower the possibilities of electrical noise.
  • 4. Place the ARSST (Advanced Reactive System Screening Tool) vessel square on the center of a stir plate to improve mixing inside the test cell.
  • 5. When testing a solid sample, ensure that the test cell is full enough and the thermocouple is low enough so the temperature can still be read when/if the solid melts.
  • 6. Keep in mind that the main factors that change calibration polynomials are sample mass, sample heat capacity, and back pressure. If any of these variables vastly changes, it is a good idea to generate a new polynomial.
  • 7. As a rule of thumb, when increasing or decreasing the temperature rate of a polynomial, a 0.1 change in the A coefficient results in a heating rate change of approximately 0.3°C/min.
  • 8. When installing the thermocouple over the test cell, make sure that there will be no obstruction with the stir bar. If the stir bar repeatedly hits the thermocouple during the test, it could deter mixing or cause noisy temperature readings.
  • 9. Remember that the maximum power output for the ARSST is 16.7 W. When the maximum power is achieved during a test, the test is no longer under adiabatic conditions.
  • 10. Configuring the test cell setup the same way each test is the key to generating reproducible results. One way of maintaining the test cell configuration is using the same amount of insulation for each test.

Adiabatic calorimeter testing provides data for relief system design, safe scale-up of chemical processes, and changes to process recipes. Safe process design requires knowledge of chemical reaction rates, character and energy release - all of which can be obtained from a low phi-factor adiabatic calorimeter such as the VSP2 (Vent Sizing Package 2) or ARSST (Advanced Reactive System Screening Tool).

Benefits

The VSP2 and the ARSST provide thermal data required for safe scale-up of chemical processes and changes to process recipes. A variety of process upset conditions can be tested to quantify hazards identified by a PHA or HAZOP study. The low phi-factor (or thermal inertia) allows the heat and gas generation rates to be measured and directly applied to the process scale, which leads to appropriately designed emergency relief systems.

Fauske & Associates, LLC (FAI) was the principal research contractor for the Design Institute for Emergency Relief Systems (DIERS), an extensive R&D program sponsored by 29 companies under the auspices of AIChE and completed in 1985. Company founder, Dr. Hans K. Fauske served as the principal investigator and overall leader of the DIERS research project. A primary purpose of that effort was evaluation of emergency relief vent requirements, including energy and gas release rates for systems under upset conditions and the effect of two phase flow on the emergency discharge process.

The DIERS program resulted in the development of a bench scale low thermal inertia adiabatic calorimeter, which was first commercialized as the Vent Sizing Package (VSP). Later improvements led to the VSP2. The Reactive System Screening Tool (RSST) was introduced by FAI in 1989 to provide an easy, inexpensive approach to the DIERS testing method. Recent enhancements led to the Advanced RSST (ARSST) in 1999. FAI uses the DIERS-based VSP2 and ARSST calorimeters to characterize chemical systems and design emergency pressure relief systems. Both instruments provide vent sizing data that are directly applicable to the process scale.

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