Risk assessment must consider both the probability of occurrence and severity of an undesirable event and permit prioritization of actions and resource allocation. Our research involves the application of fundamental engineering principles to enhancing the safety of processes starting with inherent concepts through the design, operation, and maintenance of processes, plant, and equipment. Current research involves design principles for emergency relief systems for complex flows, reactivity screening and characterization of chemicals, characterization of runaway reactions, explosive characteristics of flammable gases, reliability of equipment, processes, and procedures, risk-based engineering practices, and consequence analysis. A key engineering task is the selection of appropriate mathematical models and properties within them to describe physical processes. This research is concerned with developing generalized procedures to solve such system and parameter identification problems.
Special attention is directed to descriptions involving function-based properties.