The domino event caused by fire is one of the common accidents in hydrocarbon storage tank farms, which further expands the severity and scope of the accident. Due to the different failure sequence of the storage tanks in a domino accident, the radiant heat generated by the failed storage tank to the target tank is different. Based on the influence of this synergistic effect, this study combined the Monte Carlo algorithm and FSEM, and proposed a fast real-time probability calculation method for a fire domino accident in a storage tank area, for the first time. This method uses the Monte Carlo algorithm to simulate all accident scenarios, and obtains the evolution of multiple escalation fire domino accidents under the synergistic effect according to FSEM, and then calculates the real-time failure probability and risk. Based on a comprehensive analysis of the accident propagation path, this method avoids the problem of a large amount of calculation, and is conducive to the rapid and effective analysis of the fire risk in a storage tank area and the formulation of corresponding risk reduction measures. The effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method were proved by a case study.
Keywords: Monte Carlo simulation; chemical storage tank; domino fire accident; judgment criterion; quantitative risk analysis; synergic effect.