New knowledge and technology to enhance industrial safety
The EU-funded IRIS (Integrated European industrial risk reduction system) project set out to identify, quantify and mitigate existing and emerging risks in order to create societal cost benefits, increase industrial safety, and reduce human health and environment impact. To achieve its objectives, IRIS focused on the main safety problems of a broad range of domains, including nuclear, chemical, construction, energy production, mining and oil industries. It aimed to transform specific requirements into integrated, knowledge-based safety technologies, standards and services. Project partners created several innovations that can be applied to all industries. The risk paradigm is a framework for systematic risk identification and risk assessment that prevents or mitigates the diverse risks of various industries. The degradation curve model describes the reliability of new and existing structural systems and associated components during their service life by providing information on the deterioration process. Assessment methodologies cover all aspects of life-cycle analysis for engineering structures. The IRIS team developed hardware and software for continuous risk assessment in order to monitor online industrial system interactions during their life cycles. As such, it designed decision-support systems to assess collected data, as well as sensors, data management and an IT platform. Researchers also developed solutions for specific industries. These include tools for worker safety targeting the construction sector, vibration mitigation equipment designed for the chemical industry, a new approach for the mining industry and innovations for the energy sector. IRIS provided industrial facilities with the necessary tools to improve engineering practices and reduce uncertainties and costs while taking into account human safety.
Keywords
Industrial safety, risk assessment, risk identification, IRIS, risk reduction
