Principles of Forensic Engineering Applied to Industrial Accidents

An introductory text on the investigation of industrial accidents

Forensic engineering should be seen as a rigorous approach to the discovery of root causes that lead to an accident or near-miss. The approach should be suitable to identify both the immediate causes as well as the underlying factors that affected, amplified, or modified the events in terms of consequences, evolution, dynamics, etc., as well as the contribution of an eventual "human error".

This book is a concise and introductory volume to the forensic engineering discipline which helps the reader to recognize the link among those important, very specialized aspects of the same problem in the global strategy of learning from accidents (or near-misses). The reader will benefit from a single point of access to this very large, technical literature that can be only correctly understood with the right terms, definitions, and links in mind.

Keywords:

• Presents simple (real) cases, as well as giving an overview of more complex ones, each of them investigated within the same framework;
• Gives the readers the bibliography to access more in-depth specific aspects;
• Offers an overview of the most commonly used methodologies and techniques to investigate accidents, including the evidence that should be collected to define the cause, dynamics and responsibilities of an industrial accident, as well as the most appropriate methods to collect and preserve the evidence through an appropriate chain of security.

Principles of Forensic Engineering Applied to Industrial Accidents is essential reading for researchers and practitioners in forensic engineering, as well as graduate students in forensic engineering departments and other professionals.

Professor Luca Fiorentini is an internationally recognized expert in the field of industrial, process safety and fire engineering. He is owner and CEO of TECSA S.r.l. international consulting company working in the field of loss prevention and industrial safety, fire engineering and environmental protection. He is senior process safety, HSE, fire engineering and reliability consultant. Professor Fiorentini has experience in QRA (Hazop, LOPA, FTA, ETA, Consequence analysis), CFD and FEM methods, RAM analysis and industrial risk assessment for a number of industries: major hazard industries, refineries, chemical and petrochemical plants, liquid hydrocarbons and LPG storage farms, oil and gas onshore installations and offshore platforms, steelwork plants, food processing facilities, pharmaceutical and fine chemicals production plants, hospitals and health care facilities, ports and piers. He is an expert of fire engineering and fire risk assessment. Fiorentini is a recognized forensic engineer and investigator for fires, explosions and industrial and marine accidents. He is the author of several books, articles and conference papers as well as a reviewer for a number of scientific magazines. He is also a professional member of the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences (UK) and an editorial board member of "International Journal of Forensic Engineering" and "Fire Protection Engineering Magazine" (SFPE).

Professor Luca Marmo is a researcher at Politecnico di Torino technical university, holder of the chair of "Safety of industrial Processes" on the Chemical Engineering course, and director of the "Experimental Centre for Explosive Atmosphere Safety" at the Politecnico di Torino Scientific Activity. Consultant to the Public prosecutor and to the Court as a forensic engineer, he has investigated more than one hundred industrial and civil accidents, mainly fires and explosions. The skills of his research group are mainly focused on industrial safety and risk analysis, production of microorganisms and biomolecules of industrial interest, valorisation processes of wastes and industrial by-products, and production of microorganisms and enzymes applied in toxic compounds biodegradation processes. Other research fields concern experimental activity on fluidised bed reactors, CFD modelling of gas–solid multiphase reactors, and experimental activity on the valorisation of wastes. Author of more than 60 papers on international journals or presented at conferences, he is also a consultant to many companies and public bodies in the field of industrial safety and accident prevention, including government agencies at national and European level.