Major technological hazards in industrial activity.

Teacher(s)

Simar Aude;

Language

French

Main themes

The course describes the nature of the major industrial hazards, introduces the physico-chemical modelling of the source term, the modelling of the dispersion of effluents, the design of safeguard systems, and the existence of the human factor. Moreover, it describes the context in which the engineer operates (economic, social and legal constraints), and introduces the safety culture and the quality culture.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	Considering the AA reference list of the programme "Master in Mechanical Engineering", this course contributes to the development ,  the acquisition and the evaluation of the following learning outcomes : AA1.1, AA1.2, AA1.3 AA2.3, AA2.4, AA2.5 AA3.1, AA3.2 AA5.1, AA5.5, AA5.6 AA6.1, AA6.2 More precisely, at the end of the course, the student will be able : to understand the notion of industrial risk, in particular via  several major reference technological disaster to  use some  techniques  of evaluation and management of technological risks.

Content

NOTE: due to the large number of external lecturers, the course and seminars are taught in FRENCH. It will be allowed to ask questions in english and answer to the exam in english.
Lecture-based course to develop a global approach to major technological risks in industry. External lecturers are frequently called upon.
For example:

• Practical and operational aspects of industrial risk management
• Biological risks
• Cyber security
• Nuclear safety
• Risk analysis
• Runaway chemical reactions
•  Human factor
• Crisis center management
• Major accidents and lessons learned
• ...

Teaching methods

Courses taught in French

• Lectures
• Seminars given by speakers from industry and academia
• Plant visits (self-organized)
• Presentation by student groups of major accidents and lessons learned
• Role-playing games

Evaluation methods

• Presentation of an accident and its conclusions and lessons-learned
• Evidence of a visit to a SEVESO site and a report analyzing the safety and environmental issues (pollution, waste) of the SEVESO site visited.
• Report on the role-play, its preparation and conduct, including a brief assessment of the role-play by each member of the group
• An in-session oral examination

Weighting: Accident presentation: 15%; SEVESO report: 25%; role-play report: 25%; oral: 35%.
Generative AIs such as ChatGPT, Consensus, Perplexity, etc. may not be used to produce the evaluated reports.

Online resources

https://moodle.uclouvain.be/course/view.php?id=1161

Bibliography

Support de cours : Transparents du cours et des séminaires
Reférénces conseillées:

• Risques et accidents industriels majeurs: caractéristiques, règlementation, prévention, Nichan Margassian, L'usine nouvelle.
• Méthodes d'anlayses des risques, 3ème édition, Techniques de l'ingénieur.
• Learning from Accidents, Trevor Kletz, Gulf Professional Publishing
• Hazop and Hazan, 4th edition, Trevor Kletz, IChemE
• Still going wrong!, Trevor Kletz
• What went wrong?, Trevor Kletz, Gulf Professional Publishing
• Emerging Technological Risk: Underpinning the Risk of Technology Innovation, S. Anderson, M. Felici, Springer
• Risk in Technological systems, Grimvall, Holmgren, Jocobsson, Thedeen, Springer.

Teaching materials

• Documentation du cours sur moodle

Faculty or entity

MECA