Resilience analysis of digitalized process systems

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Abstract

Chemical process industries are complex environments prone to accidents with potentially drastic consequences. This ever-growing sector is becoming increasingly complex to satisfy the needs of global energy markets and consumer supply chains. Parallel to this growth and increased complexity, the number of accidents where conventional safety practices have failed to prevent them rises. Many relate such shortcomings in the preventive approach to the unattainability of imagining all failure scenarios. Moreover, conventional safety's reliance on linear causal chains impairs its ability to comprehend the hazardous conditions arising from human, societal, and organizational factors' interaction with the technical system. A further complicating factor adding to the ambiguity of these interactions is the digitization of chemical process industries. Rapid technology integration, application of novel tools, and associated methods could increase the possibility of deviating from normal operating conditions and result in hazardous conditions. Many believe resilience-oriented concepts, if not a paradigm shift in safety, could improve the shortcomings of conventional safety practices. Resilience's approach to safety recognizes that all expected deviations and unknown hazards cannot be prevented; therefore, it increases system readiness and strengthens the capacity to absorb, adapt, and recover from adverse events to prevent catastrophic failures. This chapter aims to provide inclusive yet brief insights into resilience, why the chemical process industries should strive to become resilient, how resiliency is achieved, and how it may be measured by reviewing the state-of-the-art published literature concerned with resilience assessment.