Domino effect in industrial plants: A petri net based approach

Amira, Asma; Innal, Fares

International Journal of Automation and Safety
Volume 3, Numéro 2, Pages 11-17
2026-01-10

Domino Effect In Industrial Plants: A Petri Net Based Approach

Authors : Amira Asma . Innal Fares .

Abstract

In industrial settings, storing and managing hazardous materials carries a high risk of major accidents, especially from domino effects where one event sparks a chain of subsequent failures. These incidents can devastate human lives, ecosystems, and facilities. This paper presents a structured approach using Petri-net modeling to evaluate and forecast domino effects across industrial layouts. Unlike traditional risk assessments that struggle with the dynamic, time-varying, and probabilistic aspects of failure cascades, our framework supports real-time simulations of accident spread by modeling process units and safety conditions as "places" and failure occurrences as "transitions." We quantify risks through proven vulnerability models like probit functions for escalation pathways and event rates from historical records or fault tree analysis. This generates time-based failure patterns for at-risk equipment, delivering deeper insights into how risks develop. Beyond pinpointing key escalation routes, the method calculates time-specific escalation probabilities, equipping safety leaders with a powerful tool for preventing and controlling domino effects.