(64c) A Novel Approach to Strengthening Conventional Light Wood Trailer Portable Buildings

The stated purpose of the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) Recommended Practice (RP) 753 document, Management of Hazards Associated with Location of Process Plant Portable Buildings (2007), is to “provide guidance for reducing the risk to personnel located in portable buildings from potential explosion, fire and toxic release hazards.” Process plant owners and/or operators routinely house personnel within conventional portable building complexes (e.g., multiple light wood trailers) located within their facilities in accordance with the guidance provided by API RP 753. However, they often find that changes to their facilities (construction of new process areas, expansion of existing process areas, etc.) can mean that the location of their existing conventional portable building complexes no longer conform to the minimum requirements of API RP 753.

Conventional light wood trailer portable buildings not conforming to the minimum requirements of API RP 753 must be relocated, which may involve unexpected capital expenses associated with site preparation and installation of utilities for the relocation effort. This can leave process plant owners/operators looking for alternative solutions such as in-place strengthening of the conventional portable buildings to keep them in place, rather than relocating them. However, intrusive structural strengthening processes, such as adding new interior wall studs or roof beams, are often not a practical option, as conventional light wood trailers are usually leased by the process plant owner/operator from a third-party vendor and structural modifications can, therefore, not be made.

To address this need for alternative solutions but still meet the requirements of API RP 753 to protect occupants of conventional portable buildings from blast hazards, BakerRisk has developed a novel approach to strengthening conventional light wood trailer portable buildings: structural upgrades that are designed to be non-intrusive, installed from the building exterior, and fully removable once the lease period has ended. Full scale vapor cloud explosion testing is presented for both an upgraded and a non-upgraded conventional light wood trailer. The efficacy of the upgrade is demonstrated in this testing, with the upgraded trailer exhibiting Low building damage, and the non-upgraded conventional trailer failing catastrophically.