CME2031 : Safety, Risk and Engineering Practice
- Offered for Year: 2025/26
- Module Leader(s): Dr Eni Oko
- Lecturer: Dr Adrian Oila, Dr Evangelos Papaioannou, Dr Chris O'Malley
- Owning School: Engineering
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 2 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
The aim of this module is to enable students to gain knowledge and skills in the use of risk and safety tools, become aware and understand appropriate safety regulations and principles, understand hazards, utilities, and materials for pressure vessels in the process industry. The students will equally become aware of the valves and their features used in the process industry.
Outline Of Syllabus
Process Safety
Responsibility and Regulations:
History and rationale behind regulations such as: COMAH (Control of Major Accident Hazards) Regulations 2015,
SEVESO Directive.
Health and Safety principles:
Chemical, physical, and biological hazards. Storage, transportation, and disposal including waste management.
Plant Safety and Best Practice Legislation COSHH and COMAH. Risk hierarchy (i.e., eliminate, substitute,
contain, protect workforce). Emergency planning. Protective equipment, training, and management issues.
Process Safety:
Based on previous disasters, illustrating Safety, Health and Environment & Loss Prevention using case studies
and videos of previous key incidents.
Risk and Safety Tools:
Grounding in ample risk and safety tools such as Hazard Operability (HAZOP), Hazard Analysis (HAZAN), As Low
as Reasonably Practical (ALARP). Includes HAZOP workshop & assessments.
Combustion:
Overview of combustion.
Engineering Practice
Material considerations affecting vessel design.
Introduction to process utilities for applications including heating and cooling duties. Introduction to electrical utilities. Practical hands-on introduction to wiring for safety circuits.
Practical introduction to key features of pumps and valves used in process safety and utility delivery.
Graphical and numerical representations of a heat exchanger network. Network synthesis based on 'pinch' design
rules.
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 1 | 1:00 | 1:00 | Introduction lecture |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 2:00 | 2:00 | Exam |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 20:00 | 20:00 | Exam Revision |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 2:00 | 2:00 | EA1 formative quizzes |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 23 | 2:00 | 46:00 | Lectures |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Practical | 2 | 3:00 | 6:00 | EA1 Labs |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Workshops | 2 | 1:00 | 2:00 | HAZOP workshops assessment preparation and completion |
| Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 1 | 121:00 | 121:00 | Review lecture notes. Solving questions for tutorial sessions. |
| Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
Safety:
Aspects of safety are introduced in logical steps, along with relevant industrial case studies, which illustrate and provide the reasons for the application of legislature as well as the tools and methods covered in the course.
Although formal lectures underpin the safety syllabus, the module contains practical sessions, which allow the students to apply and solve actual safety related engineering problems. For example, HAZOP provides scope for innovative and creative thinking, requiring the use of logical problem solving skills.
Engineering Practice:
The Engineering Practice element provides a basis for general engineering knowledge by use of lectures explaining the fundamental principles of process and electrical utilities, and practical laboratory exercises. The practical sessions outline procedures to solve problems and experiments to test hypotheses. These provide hands-on experience and enable critical thinking skills in learning and discovering.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Exams
| Description | Length | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Written Examination | 120 | 2 | A | 70 | N/A |
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral Examination | 2 | M | 30 | HAZOP and Heat Exchange Network Oral Assessment (Group activity) (approx. 30 minutes per group) |
Zero Weighted Pass/Fail Assessments
| Description | When Set | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Computer assessment | M | Practical Quiz. EA1 Formative Quiz |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
This module contains significant practical components, for example there are 2 workshops within the safety part and a range of lab work as part of the engineering practice topics. Therefore it is considered reasonable 30% of this module should be assessed as coursework.
The formal lectures in safety introduce the theoretical reasons and methods of safety. However, since safety is conceptually a frame of mind, assessed practical workshops are used to emphasise and establish the concepts to the student. In addition, students are expected to successfully complete the HAZOP and Heat Exchange Network (HEN) oral assessment . For this reason 30% of the total is attributed to HAZOP and HEN coursework. This assesses the following AHEP4 learning outcomes: M1-2, M5, M16-17.
The students' ability and comprehension of theoretical aspects in both safety and engineering practice will be assessed in a 2 hour written exam amounting to 70% of the total mark. This value will allow a sufficient depth and breadth of theoretical knowledge to be thoroughly examined. This assesses the following AHEP4 learning outcomes: M1-2.
The EA1 lab work represents a significant part of the engineering practice topics. Formative assessment is used to measure the understanding and the acquired practical ability students gain in understanding and carrying out experiments.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- CME2031's Timetable