About us
Company
SafePlant, a spin-off of the Department of Engineering of “Roma Tre” University, boasts a long-time international experience in scientific research and collaborations with the major players in the Oil & Gas field.
Our highly qualified engineers’ strong bond with the academic world enables them to benefit the company with regular scientific-technological updates and this works in the customer’s favour. Most of the activities that have been carried out by SafePlant’s engineers over the past few years concerned the assessment of the vulnerability and seismic risk of plant components, also including a laboratory validation of the models used and the development of new methodologies. Special emphasis was given to the concept of Resilience, getting to the proposal and implementation of assessment procedures, also published in scientific journals. The bond with the academic world has never been interrupted, thus, SafePlant keeps on working on research and scientific publications, also involving students and young researchers.
Mission
In a world where production assets are constantly needed, a major role is played by industrial plants, that chemically modify diverse substances in order to transform them from raw materials to finished goods, which shall be ready to enter the global market. In accordance with the law applicable to this field and paying special attention to natural disasters, our mission is to offer advanced engineering services and software aimed at quantifying, managing and mitigating risk factors in industrial plants.
Team
Founders
Tea Sistemi
Strategic Partner
Team
Founders
Tea Sistemi
Strategic Partner
Services
Our offer
In a world marked by the growing need for production assets, a major role is played by industrial plants, that chemically modify diverse substances in order to transform them from raw materials to finished goods, ready to enter the global market.
In accordance with the law applicable to this field and paying special attention to natural disasters, SafePlant offers advanced engineering services and software aimed at quantifying, managing, and mitigating risk factors in industrial plants.
SafePlant, which is a spin-off of the Department of Engineering of “Roma Tre” University, boasts a long-time international experience in scientific research and collaborations with the major players in the Oil & Gas field.
Seismic hazard analysis
SafePlant offers site hazard assessment services considering one of the most feared natural events: earthquakes.
To this end, an App has been developed in the Matlab © environment: starting from the coordinates of the site where the structure is located, the App allows to calculate the seismic hazard curve, using the well-known PSHA procedure.
It also allows to asset uniform hazard response spectra (UHS) and to perform the breakdown of the data for the assessment of Magnitude and Distance that mostly contribute to the seismic hazard of the site under consideration.
Seismic vulnerability assessment
SafePlant offers a customized seismic vulnerability assessment service for industrial and civil buildings.
Our services also include the development of fragility curves of hazardous industrial equipment, with the identification, on a case-by-case basis, of the levels of seismic damage that may lead to releases of hazardous substances. This service is preparatory to the study of the seismic risk of Seveso plants. According to the customer’s needs and the specific circumstances of the case, it is possible to develop fragility curves according to models of increasing complexity, thus finding the best solution.
We manage risk
We provide solutions for the assessment and mitigation of Na-Tech events
Na-Tech risk assessment
In accordance with European directive 2012/18/EU (so-called Seveso III) adopted in Italy under Legislative Decree 105/2015 and with the European Directive relating to the control of major accidents hazard involving dangerous substances, SafePlant offers clients a customized seismic risk assessment service for plants that present a major accident hazard.
The risk assessment is carried out according to an innovative procedure implemented in the PRIAMUS Software, which includes: a) the site-specific seismic hazard assessment b) the selection of critical equipment, c) the assessment of their seismic vulnerability with the development of fragility curves, d) the quantification of the average annual probability of exceeding the release limits of hazardous substances into the environment, e) the analysis of the actual effects on equipment, humans and the environment following such releases.
Customized services, that involve seismic hazard and vulnerability assessment adapted to the customer’s needs and, if necessary, detailed studies for the evaluation of any domino effects can be carried out too.
Scenario-based seismic hazard assessment
In order to support managers of plants which are relevant to public health and supervisory authorities, SafePlant can carry out assessments of accidental scenario-based hazards of plants at risk of a major accident, whenever the simulation of seismic damage conditions capable of generating impacts even outside the plant itself is necessary.
This service is offered aiming at the identification of the areas that are mostly affected by releases of dangerous substances and their actual effects (toxic clouds, overpressures, thermal radiation).
Impact maps are thus developed to identify the endangered areas.
We manage risk
We provide solutions for the assessment and mitigation of Na-Tech events
Structural
Design
This service includes all the conceptual, final and executive design activities of civil and industrial constructions.
A structural design package of the work is also offered: it includes the processing and delivery of the documents necessary for the authorization by the regional bodies in charge.
These activities are carried out with reference to National and European technical standards but, upon request, also to extra-European ones.
A package of services for the seismic assessment of existing structures pursuant to Ministerial Decree 17.01.2018 and EN1998:3 is also available.
Seismic protection strategies
This service concerns mitigating solutions for the seismic protection of civil and industrial buildings, based on both traditional and innovative systems.
The most suitable solutions, which are designed in accordance with the current technical standards, are identified for different structural categories, and the whole permitting process is managed.
The service involves the design of both traditional and innovative mitigating solutions also for equipment that presents major accident hazards, pursuant to Legislative Decree 105/2015. In this case, the effectiveness of the proposed systems is assessed, not only in terms of regulatory requirements, but also in terms of risk reduction and management.
Critical infrastructure resilience assessment
Resilience is a plant’s performance measurement and is represented both by the ability to survive a natural disaster and to promptly restore operating conditions, recovering the initial production capacity. Despite both in scientific literature and in the professional world the importance of the topic has been recognized, an official methodology capable of properly quantifying resilience is still needed. SafePlant has developed a method to estimate manufacturing plants’ resilience (Kalemi 2019, Paolacci 2019) in the event of extreme natural events, such as earthquakes. It allows the direct valuation of losses following a natural disaster, the time course for the recovery of production capacity and the estimation of losses resulting from non-production and damage to equipment. The calculation procedure was implemented in the Matlab © environment, thus developing an original software called PRIAMUS.
We manage risk
We provide solutions for the assessment and mitigation of Na-Tech events
Research and development
Publications
SafePlant’s staff has a long-standing experience in scientific and innovative research in the field of seismic risk of civil and industrial structures, including major accident plants.
The list below comprises some of the most significant scientific publications by the SafePlant team.
Corritore D., Paolacci S., Caprinozzi S., (2021)
A Screening Methodology for the Identification of Critical Units in Major-Hazard Facilities Under Seismic Loading,
Frontiers in Built Environment, Volume 7, November 2021, DOI: 10.3389/fbuil.2021.780719
Caprinozzi S., Paolacci S., Bursi O. S., Dolšek M., (2021)
Seismic performance of a floating roof in an unanchored broad storage tank: Experimental tests and numerical simulations,
Journal of Fluids and Structures, Volume 105, August 2021, DOI: 0.1016/j.jfluidstructs.2021.103341
Kalemi B., Caputo A., Corritore D., Paolacci F., (2020)
Computing Resilience Of Process Plants Under Na-Tech Events: Methodology And Application To Seismic Loading Scenarios, Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Volume 195, March 2020, DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2019.106685
Caprinozzi S., Paolacci F., Dolsek M., (2020)
Seismic risk assessment of liquid overtopping in a steel storage tank equipped with a single deck floating roof, Journal of loss prevention in the process industries, DOI: 10.1016/j.jlp.2020.104269
Phan H.N., Paolacci F., Bursi O.S., Corritore C., Di Filippo R., (2020)
Seismic Fragility Analysis of Unanchored Storage Tanks For Na-Tech Risk Based On Gaussian Process Modeling, Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering. Vol 18, Issue 15. DOI: 10.1007/s10518-020-00960-7
Caputo A. C., Paolacci F., Bursi O.S., Giannini. R., (2019)
Problems and perspectives in seismic QRA of chemical process plants for decision making, submitted to Journal of Pressure Vessel and Technology. Volume 141 | Issue 1, DOI: 10.1115/1.4040804.
Alessandri A., Caputo A.C. ,Corritore D., Giannini R., Paolacci F., Phan H.N., (2018)
Probabilistic Risk Analysis of Process Plants Under Seismic Loading Based on Monte Carlo Simulations, Journal of Loss Prevention in the process Industries, Vol 53 – pp. 136-148, DOI: 10.1016/j.jlp.2017.12.013
Phan H.N., Paolacci F, Corritore D., Uckan E., Akbas B., Shen J.J, (2016)
Seismic vulnerability mitigation of liquified gas tanks using concave sliding bearings, Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering Volume 14, Issue 11, pp 3283–3299, DOI:10.1007/s10518-016-9939-y
E. Uckan, B. Akbas, J. Shen, W. Rou, F. Paolacci, M. O’Rourke, (2015)
A simplified analysis model for determining the seismic response of buried steel pipes at strike-slip fault crossings, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, Volume 75, August 2015, Pages 55-65, DOI:10.1016/j.soildyn.2015.03.001
Bursi O. S., Reza M.S., Abbiati G., Paolacci F., (2015)
Performance-based Earthquake Evaluation of a Full-Scale Petrochemical Piping System, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 33 (2015) 10-22, DOI:10.1016/j.jlp.2014.11.004
Paolacci F., (2015)
On the Effectiveness of Two Isolation Systems for the Seismic Protection of Elevated Tanks, Journal of Pressure Vessels and Technology, 137:3, June, DOI: 10.1115/1.4029590
Abbiati G., Bursi O. S., Caperan P., Di Sarno L., Molina F.J, Paolacci F., Pegon P., (2015)
Hybrid Simulations of a Multi-span RC Viaduct with Plain Bars and Sliding Bearings,” Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, DOI: 10.1002/eqe.2580
Alessandri S., Giannini R., Paolacci F., Malena M., (2015)
Seismic Retrofitting of a HV Circuit Breaker Through Base Isolation with Steel Cable Dampers. Part 1: Preliminary Tests and Analyses, Engineering Structures, Volume 98, 1 September 2015, Pages 251-262, DOI: 10.1016/j.engstruct.2015.03.032
Alessandri S. Giannini R., Paolacci F., Amoretti M., Freddo A., (2015)
Seismic Retrofitting of a HV Circuit Breaker Through Base Isolation with Steel Cable Dampers.. Part 2: Shaking Table Tests Validation, Engineering Structures, Volume 98, 1 September 2015, Pages 263-274, DOI: 10.1016/j.engstruct.2015.03.031
E. Uckan, B. Akbas, J. Shen, W. Rou, F. Paolacci, M. O’Rourke, (2015)
A Simplified Analysis Model for Determining the Seismic Response of Buried Steel Pipes at Strike-slip Fault Crossings, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, Volume 75, August 2015, Pages 55-65, DOI:10.1016/j.soildyn.2015.03.001
R. Giannini, L. Sguerri, F. Paolacci, S. Alessandri (2014)
A Rational Method for the Evaluation of the Concrete Strength Combining Direct Compression Test and Non-destructive Testing Results, Engineering Structures, Volume 64:1, 68-77, DOI 10.1016/j.engstruct.2014.01.036
Reza Md, O.S. Bursi, Paolacci F., Kumar A., (2014)
Performance of Non-Standard Bolted Flange Joints in Industrial Piping Systems Subjected to Seismic Loading, Journal of Loss Prevention in Process Industry, Vol. 30 July, Pages 124–136, DOI: 10.1016/j.jlp.2014.05.011
Research and development
Research Projects
Our team has long been engaged in relevant international research projects; here are some of the most important.
Transnational Access project RETRO’ (2010-2012)
(SERIES Transnational Access User Agreement N° 31724) funded within the European project SERIES (7° Framework) for the execution of pseudodynamic tests on an old R.C viaduct with frame piers, Politecnico di Torino (prof. R. Ceravolo), University of Patras – Greece (prof. N. Makris), University of Bogazici – Turkey (prof. M. Erdik), Università del Sannio (prof. L. Di Sarno), Alga Spa Milan (Dr. A. Marioni). Budget € 430.000.
SEBQRI Project (2012-2015)
(Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering analysis of short-medium span steel-concrete composite bridges, Grant Agreement: RFCS-CT-2012-00032). University Roma Tre, University of Trento, University of Aachen (RWTH), Service d’Etudes Techniques des Routes et Autoroutes (Setra), ArcelorMittal Research and Development Esch, S.Sathopoulos – K. Farros Consulting Engineers S.A. Total Budget € 1.401.939.
European Project Induse-2-Safety (2014-2017)
Component fragility evaluation and seismic safety assessment of “special risk petrochemical plants under design basis and beyond design basis accidents, Grant No: RFS-PR-13056 – Coordinated by Prof. Oreste S. Bursi of the University of Trento. Budget: € 1.702.767.
H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016 – XP-Resilience: Extreme Loading Analysis Of Petrochemical Plants And Design Of Metamaterial-Based Shields For Enhanced Resilience (2016)
XP-RESILIENCE aims at offering innovative research training ground as well as attractive career development and knowledge exchange opportunities for Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) through cross-border and cross-sector mobility for future growth in Europe. Budget: € 3.339.811,98.
Reluis Project – RS7 - Special Systems (2015-2016)
The project, devoted to the seismic analysis of special systems, includes a task coordinated by the Unit Roma Tre, which has the ambitious objective to write guidelines for the design and the assessment of the most common industrial components (tanks, furnaces, piping systems, service frames, etc..) and to individuate their criticisms. Experimental test will be also conducted on flanged joints of piping systems. Budget: € 27.000.
Reluis Project (2005-2008)
(Rete dei Laboratori di Ingegneria sismica) – Thrust 3 – Existing bridges. One of the objectives of the project was to evaluate the cyclic behaviour of old bridge piers. University of Torino, Pavia, Genova, Chieti, Roma la Sapienza, Roma Tre, Cosenza. Budget € 120.000.
MSMART
(Mitigazione del rischio sismico di impianti di processo con l’ausilio di sistemi Smart)– INAIL. Budget € 75.000.
SPIF
(Seismic performance of multi-component systems in special risk industrial facilities) – Funded within the EU project SERA –Aachen University, Univesity of Trento, NTUA, Maurer, University of Belgrade, Roma Tre University, Swiss Nuclear, Purdue University, Wofel
FIRST-WIRE
(FIber Reinforced STeel WIREs for high performance lightweight ropes and cables operating in demanding scenarios EU RFCS project– Coordinated by Andrea Meleddu (ASTARTE), Redaelli Tecna S.p.a., NTUA), Universita Degli Studi Di Padova, Universitaet Stuttgart, Roma Tre University, Kme Germany Gmbh & Co Kg, Ihc Mti Bv.
Partner
Career
SafePlant is constantly searching for young graduates and professionals to be included in its team, with an excellent academic career in Engineering, Geology, Economics, Architecture or related subjects. We are looking for driven and ambitious people who are passionate for innovation and research, willing to join a dynamic and internationally recognized environment in this field (Italian or English only).
If you are interested in working with us fill out the form and upload your CV in PDF format. (Max 3 Mb)
Contacts
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you require any additional information or have any questions (Italian or English only).
