Jaime obtained his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering majoring in chemical process safety in 2009 in Colombia. In 2011, Jaime began his Masters degree in Chemical Engineering with Universidad de los Andes, where he had the opportunity to work in fire dynamics and fire safety engineering. Before joining UQ, Jaime was working in process risk management for the Colombian oil and gas and chemical sectors.
From: Bogotá, Colombia
Commenced studies: July 2017 (PhD)
Supervisors: Andres Osorio, Prof. Jose Torero, Dr Juan Hidalgo and Dr Cristian Maluk
Quantitative risk assessment (QRA) methodology based on the Maximum Allowable Damage concept to support process risk management
QRA quantifies risk in industrial processes that use hazardous chemical by estimating probability and consequence of a given accidental scenario based on probabilities, failure frequencies and expected damage values in order to obtain a risk index that can be evaluated against a reference criteria, e.g. F-N curves. Despite their growing use, there are many doubts about the pertinence and adequacy of QRAs, with the main concern being the uncertainty generated by the lack of background knowledge on which the data used in these studies relies, such as risk management factors or mechanical integrity information. These issues can lead to highly uncertain results that could deprive an organization of adequate information to support the decision-making processes regarding risk treatment. This research project seeks constructing an alternative QRA methodology and apply it to a case study of interest, using the concept maximum allowable damage in order to produce a simplified alternative for QRA and remove typical elements of the methodology that constitute major sources of uncertainty.
