Inherent safety indices for the design of layout plans

The design of the layout of chemical processes deeply affects the final safety performance of the plant. As a matter of fact, design choices influence critical elements such as the possibility of chain accidental events, the maximum magnitude of the accident consequences, the possibility of exposure and fatalities in populated targets (e.g. buildings), the accessibility of the different areas in a plant (Khan & Abbasi 1999, Cozzani et al. 2007).