Severity impact of a vapour cloud explosion (VCE) – Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) road tanker accident

An explosion accident from a road tanker while carrying hazardous materials can have a dangerous effect on road users and the surrounding area through which the road tanker passes. Based on the evidence of the accident case involving the road tanker reported, it shows that this accident case can cause death and destruction to the surrounding property. In Malaysia, several cases of accidents involving road tankers have also occurred. Among the methods used to determine the impact of a road tanker explosion is the use of the consequences analysis method. Currently, there is limited number of software that can be used to determine the impact of a road tanker explosion accident that carries explosive chemicals such as butadiene, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), etc. However, there are weaknesses in the display of the impact results plotted on the map. Where the impact of the explosion is only shown to the 3 main zones, namely building damage, serious injury, and glass breakage. In this paper, the enhanced contour profile method on the impact of an LPG road tanker explosion on human and structural damage is shown

Transportation of Dangerous Goods: Turkey Model

 The shortcomings in the implementation of hazardous substances transport in the world and in our country lead to very serious hazards. These problems lead to life, property and very serious environmental disasters. This is not only a matter of transportation, but also of the chemistry, textile and fuel industries. This study provides information on the legislation on dangerous goods transport in Turkey. It also contains technical information on hazardous substances, following the search of the relevant literature for the province of hazardous goods.  

Using genetic algorithms to optimise current and future health planning - the example of ambulance locations

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ambulance response time is a crucial factor in patient survival. The number of emergency cases (EMS cases) requiring an ambulance is increasing due to changes in population demographics. This is decreasing ambulance response times to the emergency scene. This paper predicts EMS cases for 5-year intervals from 2020, to 2050 by correlating current EMS cases with demographic factors at the level of the census area and predicted population changes. It then applies a modified grouping genetic algorithm to compare current and future optimal locations and numbers of ambulances. Sets of potential locations were evaluated in terms of the (current and predicted) EMS case distances to those locations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Future EMS demands were predicted to increase by 2030 using the model (R²= 0.71). The optimal locations of ambulances based on future EMS cases were compared with current locations and with optimal locations modelled on current EMS case data. Optimising the location of ambulance stations locations reduced the average response times by 57 seconds. Current and predicted future EMS demand at modelled locations were calculated and compared.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The reallocation of ambulances to optimal locations improved response times and could contribute to higher survival rates from life-threatening medical events. Modelling EMS case 'demand' over census areas allows the data to be correlated to population characteristics and optimal 'supply' locations to be identified. Comparing current and future optimal scenarios allows more nuanced planning decisions to be made. This is a generic methodology that could be used to provide evidence in support of public health planning and decision making.</p

Route Planning: Winter Applications

Multiple professions require the proficiency of accurately calculated routes. The use of efficient snow plow routes is essential for clearing the streets in a cold-climate metropolis. For this case study of snow plow routing for the city of Washington, D.C., man-made geographic boundaries were analyzed to determine their influential role in generating resourceful routes. Complex variables, such as turning impedances, multiple passes and many more, were input into a geographic information system (GIS) in order to test the software’s capabilities. The GIS software created reliable results for adequately clearing the streets of Washington, D.C

Hazardous Materials Transportation: a Literature Review and an Annotated Bibliography

The hazardous materials transportation poses risks to life, health, property, and the environment due to the possibility of an unintentional release. We present a bibliographic survey on this argument paying particular attention to the road transportation. We attempt to encompass both theoretical and application oriented works. Research on this topic is spread over the broad spectrum of computer science and the literature has an operations research and quantitative risk assessment focus. The models present in the literature vary from simple risk equations to set of differential equations. In discussing the literature, we present and compare the underlying assumptions, the model specifications and the derived results. We use the previous perspectives to critically cluster the papers in the literature into a classification scheme

Affordance based human behaviour model for group path finding

Many advanced models are developed to predict human behaviour that explains human actions in some specific environment. This study refers to some of those models, such as work behaviour model which deals with the theory of purposeful work behaviour by agents in a work environment. Some behaviour models includes cognitive, emotional and social aspects of human behaviour such as PECS model. Some models deals with affordance theory which focuses on the relation between agent, his actions and his observations. All these models offer suitability towards the formation of a new computational model which identifies human behavioural aspects individually. Our new model provides an opportunity to observe human behaviour in social activity, such as migration and solves path prediction problem. The model is expected to resolve various hypothetical relations between the included behavioural aspects, which affect human actions in making path choice decisions. An agent based simulation on migration activity of artificial human societies is developed to test the applicability of the model. Some mobility patterns are calculated using this implementation on a known study area

Link-based multi-class hazmat routing-scheduling problem : a multiple demon approach

This paper addresses a hazmat routing and scheduling problem for a general transportation network with multiple hazmat classes when incident probabilities are unknown or inaccurate. A multi-demon formulation is proposed for this purpose. This formulation is link-based (i.e., the decision variables are link flows) and can be transformed into other forms so that a wide range of solution methods can be used to obtain solutions. This paper also proposes a solution strategy to obtain route flow solutions without relying on exhaustive route enumeration and route generation heuristics. Examples are set up to illustrate the problem properties, the method of obtaining route flows from link flows, and the computational efficiency of the solution strategy. Moreover, a case study is used to illustrate our methodology for real-life hazmat shipment problems. From this case study, we obtain four key insights. First, to have the safest shipment of one type of hazmat, different trucks carrying the same type of hazmat need to take different routes and links. Second, in case of multiple-hazmat transportation, it is recommended to use different routes and links for the shipment of different hazmat types. This may increase travel time but can result in safer shipment. Third, if the degree of connectivity in a transportation network is high, the shipment company may have multiple solutions. Fourth, the hazmat flows on critical links (whose removal would make the network disconnected) must be distributed or scheduled over different periods to have safer shipment

GIS and ant algorithm for multi-objective siting of emergency facilities

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN