Simulation and optimization of fire safety emergency evacuation in university library

Emergency evacuation for supertall buildings with heights over 200 m require a very long time for occupants to travel down the buildings. Occupants might jam into protected lobbies and staircases, extending the waiting time. There is not yet any code requirement specifically for emergency evacuation in supertall buildings, which are criticized for using the same codes for buildings with normal heights. Further, the evacuation design for several existing supertall buildings does not even follow prescriptive fire-safety codes. The underlying problems have not yet been addressed by thorough studies. Evacuation in such tall buildings in Hong Kong will be studied in this paper. The assumptions made in the local prescriptive codes for safe egress will be justified. Three buildings with evacuation design complying with the local codes are considered as examples. A commercial building, a hotel, and a residential block in Hong Kong are taken as examples. The key design parameters in the local codes are for 40 people evacuating with a flow rate of 1.1 person/s through the staircase between typical floors. The evacuation time from each floor to the protected lobby is assumed to be within 5 min. The evacuation times in different scenarios with these assumptions are calculated. Such assumptions do not hold under a high occupant load. The total evacuation time would be extended significantly when the travelling flows of occupants are blocked in any of the evacuation routes. Different fire-safety management schemes with staged evacuation, such as assigning higher priorities to evacuate lower or upper floors first, are evaluated. The results observed for safe egress are then discussed.

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Modelling of the Human Behavior in Evacuation

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.580-583.2663 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 580-583 ◽

pp. 2663-2666

Author(s):

Lan Wei ◽

Chao Yang Zhao ◽

Wei Feng Yuan

Keyword(s):

Cellular Automaton ◽

Human Behavior ◽

Fire Safety ◽

Numerical Test ◽

Emergency Evacuation ◽

Promising Tool ◽

Safety Design ◽

Ca Model ◽

Fire Safety Design ◽

In Fire

Emergency evacuation is an important issue in fire safety. In this study, a cellular automaton (CA) model in which the human behaviour termed ‘flow with the stream’ is considered is proposed to simulate the procedure of emergency evacuation. Based on the CA model, the influence of the number of guiders to the evacuation from a large compartment is analyzed through numerical test. The result shows that the proposed CA model is a promising tool that may be used in fire safety design.

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Fire safety and emergency evacuation guidelines

Anaesthesia ◽

10.1111/anae.15547 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

D. H. T. Scott

Keyword(s):

Fire Safety ◽

Emergency Evacuation

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Study on the Improvement of Domestic Barrier-free Standard and Response Manual to Secure Evacuation Safety for Blind Persons

Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation ◽

10.9798/kosham.2021.21.1.139 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 139-148

Author(s):

Donggoo Seo ◽

Kyungsuk Cho ◽

Jongho Lee ◽

Sangheon Kim

Keyword(s):

Fire Safety ◽

Visually Impaired ◽

The United States ◽

Emergency Evacuation ◽

Safety Education ◽

Free System ◽

Safety Standards ◽

Evacuation Safety ◽

Blind Persons ◽

Barrier Free

There are approximately 290 million blind people worldwide. Among them, approximately 40 million people are severely blind. Although systems and policies have been improved to enhance the convenience of the visually impaired, the standards related to evacuation safety in the case of fire have not been sufficiently improved. Therefore, in this study, to ensure the safe evacuation of the visually impaired in case of fire, domestic fire safety standards were derived by analyzing the development status of a domestic barrier-free system and related manuals based on the characteristics of evacuation behaviors of the visually impaired, as well as by reviewing the cases in the United States and the United Kingdom. As a result, the following measures were derived: 1) improving the display method for landmark elements, 2) customized fire safety education and training for employees, and 3) a plan to develop a personal emergency evacuation planning manual in accordance with the characteristics of a building. It is expected that these objectives can be used to improve fire safety standards and manuals and to develop related technologies for the visually impaired.

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Emergency Evacuation Simulation and Optimization for a Complex Rail Transit Station: A Perspective of Promoting Transportation Safety

Journal of Advanced Transportation ◽

10.1155/2020/8791503 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 ◽

pp. 1-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hui Xu ◽

Cheng Tian ◽

Yang Li

Keyword(s):

Public Space ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Emergency Evacuation ◽

Transportation Safety ◽

Rail Transit ◽

Evacuation Simulation ◽

Emergency Evacuations ◽

Simulation And Optimization ◽

Transit Station ◽

Evacuation Routes

Rail transit stations with multifloor structures have been built in many cities to intensively utilize land resources and facilitate lives of community. However, being overcrowded with passengers results in high risks during daily operation. In response, this study conducted an emergency evacuation simulation and optimization in the three-dimensional (3D) space of “complex rail transit stations” (CRTSs). The aim of the paper is to provide a methodology to determine effective emergency evacuation strategies for CRTSs. The Lianglukou Rail Transit Station in Chongqing, China, was used as a case study and the AnyLogic simulation platform employed for simulating emergency evacuations. An emergency evacuation theoretical framework was established. The emergency evacuation strategies, including evacuation routes and evacuation times, were determined based on the theoretical demonstration. Simulation and optimization of emergency evacuation in the Lianglukou station were conducted. Accordingly, four main simulation results were obtained: (1) Escalators/stairs and turnstiles are key facilities in the evacuation; (2) Effective guidance for the evacuation is necessary in the public space of the station; (3) Passenger aggregation nodes should be guided for balanced evacuation; (4) Removing metal barriers is a useful evacuation optimization measure. The proposed research method and framework can be used by other CRTSs in the establishment of emergency evacuation strategies and effective optimization strategies to promote safety of transportation system. The research findings are beneficial to passengers in helping them provide valuable emergency evacuation guidance.

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Analysis of Security Evacuation Simulation and Optimization of a University Library

Procedia Engineering ◽

10.1016/j.proeng.2014.04.080 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 71 ◽

pp. 558-566 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jiang-wen Hu ◽

Si-si Chen

Keyword(s):

Evacuation Simulation ◽

Simulation And Optimization ◽

University Library

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Emergency Evacuation from a Multi-Room Compartment

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.166-169.2570 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 166-169 ◽

pp. 2570-2577

Author(s):

Jun Feng Liu ◽

Wei Feng Yuan

Keyword(s):

Cellular Automaton ◽

Fire Safety ◽

Emergency Evacuation ◽

Numerical Results ◽

Spatial Distance ◽

Movement Direction ◽

Human Beings ◽

Two Factors ◽

Ca Model

An extensive cellular automaton (CA) model is proposed to simulate the evacuation from a large multi-room compartment. To determine the movement direction, it is assumed that two factors, viz. spatial distance and occupant density, are considered by each occupant. To conduct more reasonable simulation, psychological inertia of human beings is also taken into account in modeling. Numerical results show that the proposed CA model is robust and the model can be applied in the assessment of fire safety.

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