(13a) Building Design and Selection for Protection of Critical Assets

Mission Critical Buildings (MCB) are buildings that must remain operational in the event of a crisis or catastrophe in order to minimize risks due to asset damage, business interruption, and personnel impact. On Christmas Day 2020, an AT&T MCB - their regional network hub - was severely damaged in downtown Nashville, Tennessee as the result of an intentional bombing. Loss of this network hub not only halted commercial operations, but also severely impacted the ability of emergency services to communicate. When a MCB fails to provide the required protection to ensure negligible impact to people and equipment inside, negative consequences are possible including escalation due to knock-on effects; inability for safeguards to act to control the crisis or catastrophe; loss of critical communications required for emergency response and management; and significant injury or loss of life.

Processing facilities, which contain materials at conditions with potentially high hazards, are environments with numerous MCBs. While less susceptible to intentional events like the Nashville bombing mentioned above, processing facilities face operational hazards including explosions, fragments, fires, and toxic events. In the Chemical Safety Board’s (CSB) investigation report released on October 11, 2022 of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) Refinery incident, a recommendation was included for the American Petroleum Institute (API) to update its standard to “require protection of critical safeguards and associated control system components from fire and explosion hazards, including radiant heat and flying projectiles.” This recommendation, if implemented, will require facilities to ensure MCBs are Multi-hazard Resistant Buildings (MRBs) able to withstand a range of potential impacts; however, even if not adopted by API, this recommendation is likely to become industry best practice regarding MCBs.

This paper details the key design characteristics of MRBs to protect critical assets in industrial processing facilities whether that be critical safeguards and control systems; emergency response equipment including communications and firewater equipment; people critical to operations and emergency response; or people located in buildings near processing units. To provide background, key concepts of protective building design is introduced including the response of different building materials to hazards common in processing facilities. These concepts are then examined to illustrate how building response translates to human and equipment vulnerability. A series of full-scale test videos demonstrate how the two most commonly utilized building materials for protective buildings, concrete and steel, protect against the range of hazards common in industrial processing facilities. The reader will have a greater understanding of how to select a protective building for mission critical assets including control systems, equipment, and people.