Industrial accidents triggered by lightning.

Natural disasters can cause major accidents in chemical facilities where they can lead to the release of hazardous materials which in turn can result in fires, explosions or toxic dispersion. Lightning strikes are the most frequent cause of major accidents triggered by natural events. In order to contribute towards the development of a quantitative approach for assessing lightning risk at industrial facilities, lightning-triggered accident case histories were retrieved from the major industrial accident databases and analysed to extract information on types of vulnerable equipment, failure dynamics and damage states, as well as on the final consequences of the event.

Industrial accidents triggered by flood events: analysis of past accidents.

Industrial accidents triggered by natural events (NaTech accidents) are a significant category of industrial accidents. Several specific elements that characterize NaTech events still need to be investigated. In particular, the damage mode of equipment and the specific final scenarios that may take place in NaTech accidents are key elements for the assessment of hazard and risk due to these events.