Excel is a popular tool used by engineers for various type of calculations (including consequence analysis); hence it is a ideal platform to showcase the integration capabilities of Phast Web Services (PWS).
Integrating PWS into Excel requires macros and VBA. These features are not currently supported in the web version of Excel hence the samples below are not fully interactive. This also means the full desktop version of Excel is required to fully access and engage with the possibilities of PWS in Excel.
Excel is a widely used tool for Hazard Identification (HAZID) and Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) studies. These studies often require the explicit quantification of the consequences of a release of hazardous material (e.g. what the consequences of the failure of a blanked flange?). This is challenge that is elegantly solved with PWS in Example 1.
Calculation of safety/separation distances (e.g. flammable dispersion dimensions) is often required to inform diverse aspects of decision making and business processes (e.g. safe location of temporary equipment). Example 2 shows how this could be achieved in Excel using PWS. This example combines several individual models in Phast (discharge, dispersion) and post processors to generate single value output descriptors (cloud distance, area). The calculation process is completely abstracted from the user and simplified to require just basic inputs. The equivalent process in Phast would require additional manual steps as well as the transfer of data between Phast and Excel.
Author: Kenny Shaba