Engineering Controls and the Hierarchy of Hazard Mitigation

Course Description:

This course examines how engineers apply the hierarchy of hazard mitigation within the design, operation, and evaluation of engineered systems. The course begins by examining the foundations of hazard mitigation and the relationship between hazards, risk, and system safety. It then explores the structure of the hierarchy of hazard mitigation and explains how engineers evaluate and select appropriate control strategies.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, the participant should be able to:

1. Explain the engineering principles underlying hazard identification, risk evaluation, and hazard mitigation in complex engineered systems.
2. Describe the structure and purpose of the hierarchy of hazard mitigation and explain how it guides the selection of effective safety controls.
3. Distinguish between elimination, substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment within the hierarchy of hazard mitigation.
4. Evaluate common sources of hazards in mechanical, chemical, electrical, and industrial process systems.
5. Analyze engineering control strategies such as isolation, ventilation, containment, machine guarding, interlock systems, fail-safe mechanisms, and energy isolation.
6. Apply engineering risk analysis techniques such as Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOP), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), and Event Tree Analysis (ETA) to identify potential failure pathways.
7. Assess how engineering design decisions influence hazard exposure and overall system safety throughout the lifecycle of engineered systems.
8. Explain how automation, monitoring technologies, and redundancy improve the reliability and effectiveness of hazard mitigation systems.
9. Evaluate how predictive monitoring, data analytics, and artificial intelligence tools can assist engineers in identifying emerging hazards in complex industrial systems.
10. Analyze real-world engineering case studies to determine how failures in hazard mitigation strategies can lead to incidents and how engineering controls can be implemented to reduce risk.