About RiskCalcs
RiskCalcs is an online process safety and quantitative risk engineering platform. It brings the calculations that normally sit in scattered spreadsheets — source terms, dispersion, fire and explosion effects, indoor build-up, detector and noise mapping, property data — into one browser-based toolkit with the method, equations and assumptions documented alongside each module.
Engineering scope
- Source-term modelling: gas discharge, two-phase blowdown and depressurisation, indoor release build-up.
- Consequence modelling: neutral and dense gas dispersion, flare and fire thermal radiation.
- Mapping: gas detection coverage and plant noise contours.
- Supporting data: chemical and mixture physical properties for consequence calculations.
Methodologies used
The modules implement established, publicly documented engineering methods rather than proprietary correlations. Compressible orifice flow with choked and subsonic regimes underpins the discharge calculations; the Peng-Robinson equation of state provides real-gas properties and flash calculations; Gaussian and dense-gas treatments cover dispersion; point-source and solid-flame approaches cover thermal radiation.
Each calculator page states the governing equations, the nomenclature, the assumptions and the limitations. Where a module follows the approach set out in an industry document — for example the depressuring and radiation guidance in API 521, or the consequence analysis guidance published by CCPS — the page says so. No claim of certification or compliance with any standard is made: the engineer using the result remains responsible for demonstrating that the method suits the case.
How results should be used
Outputs are engineering estimates intended for screening, design support, sensitivity work and checking of third-party results. They should be reviewed against the project basis of design by a competent process safety engineer before being used in a HAZOP action closeout, a safety case, a QRA or any regulatory submission.
Calculations run in the browser. Inputs entered into the modules are not required for the toolkit to function offline once loaded, and no project data needs to leave the machine for a calculation to be performed.