Accidents enhanced by the domino effect in chemical, petrochemical and energy plants are generally more serious and catastrophic than any other accidents. But it is difficult to examine the true factor and aftermath of the accident because the whole domino effect is influenced by many nonlinear factors. The immediate causes of the domino effect are the peak overpressure, flying objects, and flame; nonlinearity is inherent in all these causes. However, still it is believed that a systematic mathematical approach can minimize the risk of the incidence of the domino effect.

This study considered the general cases of n-explosive facilities of different size and capability to be located in the given facility site of arbitrary shape. Based on the optimization result obtained from nonlinear programming (NLP), the proposed method suggests the exact locations of each facility that minimizes the total accident risk including domino effects. Probable risk for the determined locations of the facilities is validated through Monte Carlo simulations for domino events. Implementation of the proposed method as a plug-in module is also discussed.