Pressure Vessel Explosions inside Buildings: Assessing Damage Using Stochastic Accident Simulation

A methodological framework of assessing damage to buildings caused by accidental pressure vessel explosions is presented. It is proposed to assess the damage using a stochastic simulation of actions imposed by these explosions. The stochastic simulation is employed as a tool, which allows the efficient dealing with considerable uncertainties related to explosion accidents. A methodology developed in the field of the quantitative risk assessment and known as the predictive, epistemic approach to risk analysis is proposed for the handling of these uncertainties and dealing with scarcity of data related to specific situations of structural exposure to a potential pressure vessel explosion. It is also proposed to give a final result of the simulation-based damage assessment as a set of pairs of foreseeable damage events and subjective probabilities of their occurrence.