RISKCURVES 7

TNO Knowledge for business

RISKCURVES 7
The use of hazardous materials puts the safety of people living and working nearby industrial sites or transport
routes at risk. It is therefore essential to evaluate such risks by means of a Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA) to ensure
safety precautions are taken and emergency services supported. Furthermore, these risk assessments have to be taken
into account in the process of urban spatial planning. For these reasons, the obligation of local authorities and
industrial companies to perform QRA (using specified procedures) for potentially hazardous activities is regulated in
national and international legislation
and directives. TNO’s RISKCURVES makes
performing a QRA a simple task.
The different steps in the procedure are
clearly presented and supported with
internationally acknowledged,
state-of-the-art, transparent models and
methods of calculation. RISKCURVES 7 is
the newest version of this successful
software program that is used worldwide.

Port of Rotterdam, NL
- Photo Aeroview -

Years of experience, acknowledged models
Over the past few decades, TNO has build up a track record of
investigating industrial and external safety. This has led to the
development of many models simulating the effects of accidents
involving hazardous materials. Many of these models and rela-
tionships have been published in the so-called Yellow and Green
Books. These books, compiled by TNO for the Dutch government,
are acknowledged and used worldwide as a standard for perfor-
ming effect and consequence calculations. A QRA requires a
second step: calculation of risks, expressed as individual and
societal risks, for people living near industrial sites or transport
routes. This process includes defining accident scenarios with cor-
responding failure frequencies, and determining population distri-
bution. The methods implemented in RISKCURVES are internation-
ally acknowledged and fully transparent (based upon the Purple
Book and other guidelines for risk analysis).
Step-by-step to optimum results
To perform a QRA easily and effectively, RISKCURVES distinguishes
six procedural steps that are presented clearly by tab sheets in the
program. For all the different steps, RISKCURVES makes it straight-
forward to
– input required data
– present or save (intermediate) results for future calculations
– choose between standard scenarios and specific scenarios that
need special attention from experts
RISKCURVES contains full GIS functionality for the input of data
and presentation of geographical results. The GIS engine supports
different background map formats like BMP, TIF(F), JPG, AutoCAD
and ESRI-SHP. A special tool is implemented for geo-referencing
aerial photographs and other pixel oriented graphs with an ESRI
world file. The input of other data can easily be performed using
ASCII or Excel formats. RISKCURVES seamlessly connects to stan-
dard Office applications for exchange of data and presentations.
RISKCURVES results
During the calculation process, RISKCURVES stores all calculation
results in a large database. Subsequently, presenting, analysing
and viewing results can be performed instantly for any selection
and/or combination of scenarios, without the need for recalcula-
ting the project. Both individual and societal risk results can be
presented using many display and analysis options:
The presentation options include:
– Individual Risk Transects (FX) and Societal Risk (FN) curves
– Isorisk contours
– Societal Risk Curves per km section (transport FN)
– Effect and consequence areas for every scenario
– Reports about the project and intermediate results
– Log files and error reports
The analysis options include:
– Individual risk: Scenario Risk Ranking report at a specific loca-
tion
– Societal risk: Scenario Risk Ranking report for victim categories
– Societal risk: Scenario Risk Ranking report for the Expected
Value (EV)
 RISKCURVES key benefits
– User friendliness (step-by-step calculations, storage of
intermediate results, easy input of data)
– Sophisticated models (e.g. the Multi-Energy method for
explosions and the dynamic modelling of BLEVE’s)
– Transparency of models and methods
– Many presentation options and analysis possibilities

Special features for effect and consequence

calculations in RISKCURVES
– A database containing all the physical and toxicological proper-
ties of many chemicals is used to perform the effect and conse-
quence calculations. In addition to this database, RISKCURVES
users have access to the so-called DIPPR-datafiles, which con-
tain these properties for more than 1500 chemicals. Also, che-
micals can be added manually to the database.
– The models in RISKCURVES calculate the effects and consequen-
ces of the following and other phenomena:
- Explosions (with TNO’s sophisticated Multi-Energy method)
- Heat radiation (dynamic modelling of BLEVE’s, pool fire,
torch fire)
- Outflow of liquids, gases and pressurised liquefied gases
Example of QRA results: isorisk contours presented on the map
- Spray release
- Pool evaporation (for different pool geometries)
- Dispersion of neutral and dense gases Professional support and training
- Intoxication, flame contact, lethal heat radiation and blast Users are strongly advised to take the service option in the licence
– To be able to calculate risks during the transport of hazardous contract. By doing so, they are assured of optimal support in the
materials, all scenarios can be defined as being a transport sce- use of RISKCURVES.
nario. Activating the transport option enables the user to – Via the TNO Helpdesk, questions are answered quickly and pro-
define a route along which the chemical is transported. During fessionally by TNO’s experts.
the QRA calculation, RISKCURVES automatically generates possi- – Users regularly receive updates.
ble accident locations along this route, with a spacing based – Users can visit the product website for FAQ answers and news
upon the magnitude of the accident and the resolution of the about the further development of the program.
population data.
For all users, TNO provides training courses, enabling users in just
two or three days to become familiar users of RISKCURVES and
showing them the many possibilities with the program.

Recommended system configuration

The recommended system configuration is shown in the following
table. In general, a modern PC running MS-Windows 2000, XP or
Vista will do fine.

Equipment Recommended configuration

Computer Pentium 4 processor, 2.4 GHz or faster

Memory 512 MB RAM or more

Graphics display 1024x768

Hard disk space 1 GB

Printers All windows supported printers

External media CD-ROM, USB-drive

Operating system MS Windows 2000, XP or Vista

System configuration

Tab sheet for equipment definition in RISKCURVES 7.4

TNO Built Environment and Geosciences

Princetonlaan 6
P.O. Box 80015
3508 TA Utrecht
The Netherlands

Victor van Swinderen,

Sales and Marketing Software products
P +31 888 66 20 73
F +31 888 66 20 50
victor.vanswinderen@tno.nl

www.tno.nl/riskcurves
info.riskcurves@tno.nl