INTEGRATION OF BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING AND AGENT-BASED MODELING FOR EVACUATION SIMULATION

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a highly advanced spatial modeling method that is fully incorporated in the building lifecycle. With the support of Information Technologies, the use of BIM has become common in building management such as energy efficiency, indoor navigation and emergency evacuation simulations. This study focuses on emergency evacuation simulations since, integrating BIM and Spatial Information Science, could mitigate casualties in emergencies. Traditional evacuation management methods are generally inadequate since they are based on 2D evacuation plans, they are static and do not consider the characteristics/interactions of the people in the building. This study aims to integrate BIM and Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) for emergency evacuation simulations, where characteristics of the building and the users are incorporated. Istanbul Technical University Faculty of Civil Engineering was selected as study area and the BIM model was created by using the CAD drawings of the floor plans. The users of the Faculty building such as students, academicians, administrative staff and visitors are considered for simulations. The BIM model was transferred to the ABM environment, and the routes used during the fire evacuation were generated. Fire evacuation simulations were performed, where agents having different characteristics evacuate the building according to the rules predefined. Three different scenarios were tested. Major conclusion of this study is that, via integrating BIM and ABM, it is possible to model people’s behavior within a three-dimensional digital environment, where decision-makers could be performing simulations such as fire evacuation supported by dynamic, realistic and accurate information.

Effect of Exit Door Width on Flow Rate in Occupant-based Fire Evacuation Scenarios in Dormitories

Student dormitories are intensely used buildings that meet the resting, accommodation and living needs of students. It is necessary to ensure the safety of students and to eliminate possible risks in dormitories as intensive use areas. Fires pose a great risk in dormitories and may cause serious casualties and injuries. The reduction of casualties and injuries can be achieved by analyzing occupant behaviour during fires according to the building use scenarios. In this paper, a type of dormitory that provides two alternative exits is explored. The building use scenarios of the dormitory were investigated by making on-site observations. Students’ use of sleeping units, dining units and partial sleeping/dining units and fire exit routes were determined. Pathfinder computer program was used to analyze the fire evacuation performance. This program was defined in accordance with occupant behaviour and different fire evacuation times were suggested depending on the building use scenarios. At the end of the study, based on the evacuation times, the flow rate at the exit doors according to the location of the occupants was analyzed. In the fire escape routes, as the upper floors are reached from the lower floors, the occupant flow rate decreases at the exit doors and the flow rates continue to be stable as the number of occupants is saturated according to the door width. The decrease in the number of occupants in the dining unit decreases the flow rate at the exit doors. It is important that various assembly units in dormitories, such as the dining unit, are designed on floors that can directly provide evacuation to a safe area. The results obtained are suitable for all dormitories, residences, hotels and other similar buildings. Keywords: building use scenario, dormitory, evacuation, flow rate, exit widths

Building Fire Evacuation: An IoT-Aided Perspective in the 5G Era

Complex and tall buildings have been constructed in many cities recently. Fire safety should be a major concern of building designers, engineers, and governments. Previous fire experience has made us understand the importance of acquiring fire-ground information to facilitate firefighting operations, evacuation processes, rescues, etc. Recently, the rapid advancement in Information Technology, Data Analytics, and other detection and monitoring systems has provided the basis for fire safety researchers to re-think fire safety strategies in the built environment. Amongst all fire safety studies, evacuation in tall buildings, including elevator evacuations, has attracted much attention. IoT-aided building fire evacuation is a new concept of the building evacuation mode, which improves the building evacuation process by making decisions of escape based on the real-time fire-ground information, such as the fire environment and occupant situations. Focusing on IoT applications in building fire evacuation, this paper explores the advantages and insufficiencies of current smart building fire evacuation systems. A conceptual design of an IoT-aided building fire evacuation control system is described. The system is introduced in the sequence of information needs, information sources and data transmission, and potential services and applications. Finally, new insights into promising 5G technologies for future building fire evacuations are discussed.

Virtual Fire Evacuation Drills through a Web-Based Serious Game

Evacuation capacity is very important in building fire. In order to improve the safety evacuation capacity of occupants, a web-based serious game for virtual fire evacuation drills is proposed. As a prototype of the serious game, a stand-alone system for virtual drill had been developed. On this basis, the system framework of the serious game is first designed for web-based training, including the database, front and back ends. Secondly, an optimization solution including fire scenes and web codes is designed for smooth rendering performance. Lastly, a solution is designed to visualize the evacuation paths of numerous trainees, which can be used to reveal the evacuation rules, and an evaluation model of evacuation performance is created considering the features of evacuation paths and fire hazards, to provide comprehensive feedback for trainees. Thus, a convenient and accessible web-based serious game was developed. More than 100 people participated in the online virtual evacuation drill of a dormitory building fire. Through the drills, the average evacuation time of the trainees decreases from 79.77 s to 54.32 s, and the safety scores of the trainees improve from 74.71 to 81.21. Therefore, the evacuation abilities of trainees gradually improve, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the drill. Consequently, virtual fire drills using a web-based serious game can play an important role in improving the evacuation ability.

Developing fire evacuation simulation through BDI-based modelling and simulation

Fire evacuation simulation is used to simulate the fire evacuation procedures by involving human-like agents. In this paper, the fire evacuation simulation is designed and developed by adopting the BDI agent plug-in. BDI (Belief, Desires, Intentions) is a technique used in modelling the multi-agent system. A tool and BDI methodology are introduced to help in modelling human behaviour and the decision making of an agent. In this paper, the usability of the BDI methodology and BDI agent plug-in tool is studied through a case study of a fire evacuation environment. The case study covers the three main components needed in a fire evacuation simulation: the fire (the spread of the fire and smoke), the building layout (the classroom and physical objects), and the human-like multi-agents. Using the Unity game engine, a fire evacuation simulation system is built based on the requirements, methodology, and design. The usability of the BDI agent plug-in tool can be proven by observing the results of the fire evacuation simulation and the reaction of agents when encountering the fire situation. However, there are also some limitations of this fire evacuation simulation. Therefore, there are works to be done to develop a more realistic fire evacuation simulation and more human-like multi-agents in future.