Abstract:

In order to accurately assess the consequences of the occurrence of chain failures of skid-mounted equipment components in shale gas gathering and transportation station, the calculations study of the consequence area was conducted to avoid the neglecting the chain effects, underestimating or overestimating the consequence hazards, and neglecting the overlapping of failure consequences. Firstly, based on American Petroleum Institute (API) 581 standard, a weighted failure consequence area calculation method was established by considering the possible existence of domino scenarios. Then, the arc-area algorithm was introduced to eliminate the influence of overlapping failure consequences. Combining the probability of equipment failure with the probability of domino scenarios, the weighting coefficients of the chain effect was determine to form the solution method and the steps of the calculation of the consequences area of skid-mounted equipment failure. Finally, the failure consequences area of a shale gas gathering station absorption skid was calculated as an example. The results show that the failure consequences area calculated by considering the overlap of failure consequences is 759.48 m², and the conventional failure consequence calculation method underestimates the consequences by 38.5%. The commonly used domino method, which does not eliminate the overlap of consequences, overestimates the consequences by 62.7%. Considering the overlap of failure consequences area can help to reasonably assess the area of the consequences of the chain failures of the skid-mounted components of a shale gas gathering and transportation station.

Key words: shale gas, gathering and transportation station, skid-mounted equipment, cascading failure, failure consequence, calculation method, domino effect