Investigation of past incidents always reveal deficiencies that are not directly equipment-related, but may be non-technical in nature, such as procedural deviation, inadequate communication etc. Past risk assessment models only provide semi-quantitative approaches to incorporate them in the risk assessment and cannot capture their dynamic nature and dependency in a single model. Current research takes up the challenge of developing a framework and step-by-step methodology for quantitatively merging technical, operational, human and organizational factors contributing to the cumulative risk of a barrier failure. It also addresses their dynamic changes with time, considers their interactions with each other and incorporates the uncertainty of parameter estimation to assess the cumulative risk in a facility.
