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| Author(s) | Cox, R.A. (ed.) |
|---|---|
| Title | Mathematics in major accident risk assessment |
| Publisher | Clarendon Press |
| Year of publication | 1989 |
| Reviewed by | Anatoly Zhigljavsky |
This volume contains 14 works presented at a conference on the topic held in Oxford in 1986. The conference was concerned with the mathematical modelling aspects of large industrial accidents as well as related probabilistic and risk concepts. The volume can be divided into three parts covering the treatment of failure estimation, the modelling of accident consequences and the evaluation of uncertainty in risk estimates, respectively.
Part 1 consists of four papers dealing with fracture mechanisms, statistical aspects of system failures and properties of failure rate estimates. Part 2 includes papers devoted to mathematical models of specific engineering problems. Part 3 concentrates on estimation of uncertainty in risk analysis results and the sensitivity of those results to modelling assumptions.
Mathematical level of the works included into the volume is not high. This reflects the level of results in the field but contradicts to that the word "mathematics" has appeared as the first word at the title. It also means that the book can find the readers mainly among engineers.
The volume has been produced in a camera ready form and is of average quality.
I am not sure that the publication of the book is an important event for the specialists in reliability and risk theory perhaps except for the authors and few others.
It is not easy for me to find somebody to advise to buy the book. Merely, it looks like that its purchase may be a reasonable investment for some engineering companies.