A Review of Building Evacuation Models - NIST Virtual Library

where v is the speed of the evacuee (m/s) and d is the density in persons/m 2 .
Use of fire data: None.
Output: As the model captures the movement patterns of the evacuees, it provides output in the
form of evacuation times of the entire building and certain building components/zones
throughout the building.
Import CAD drawings: Yes. Part of the SGEM package involves the AutoCAD recognition
module.
As part of the package, there is an Automatic Region Generator (ARG) that can capture
architectural information from CAD plans and rebuilds the regions (and their topological
relationships). Also, the ARG identifies the evacuation directions of the occupants at each
portal. The capturing process involves three different stages:
• Formatting: The “loose” information from the CAD plans are reformatted and
unnecessary information is removed.
• Recognition: The formatted information forms the regions/zones within the building
• Corrective: The user is required to redefine any unrecognized parts of the CAD plans.
Visualization capabilities: Yes, this is part of the SGEM package labeled as the output module.
The output can be provided in 2-D by this model.
Validation studies: One exercise that was performed with the SGEM model to demonstrate the
model’s ability to cope with difficult or complex geometries and a large population using a floor
plan of a shopping mall. In addition, exercises were run with the model using the floor plans of a
karaoke establishment. These exercises showed that the model recognized a change in overall
evacuation time of the establishment when varying the width of the main corridor. However,
with the exercises, there was no comparison made with other models or data (drill or actual) 85 .
A comparison of the model results to a field test was performed using a lecture theater in City
University in Hong Kong 86 . A controlled evacuation drill was conducted and recorded at various
locations in order to collect the necessary data for a comparison with the model. The purpose of
the drill was to capture the overall evacuation time, the flow pattern of the occupants, and the
walking speeds of the occupants at different points throughout the theater. 82 students
participated in the drill and were told to evacuate via the front door at the sound of the alarm.
The total evacuation time was recorded as 66 s. The input consisted of dividing the lecture
theater into 9 zones and assuming a uniform speed of 0.6 m/s for occupants at the seats and 1.3
m/s through the wider areas and doorways. According to the article, the evacuation time varied
with the initial positions of the 82 students among the 140 available seats in the theater. By
varying initial occupant location, the evacuation time for the theater ranged from 58.4 s to 61.9 s,
with an average time of 60.1 s and a standard deviation of 1.54 s. The predicted mean
evacuation time (with a response time of 0) plus the few seconds of response time for the
occupants in the actual event came close to the drill time of 66 s, according to the article 86 . The
evacuation time of the theater versus the number of occupants in the theater is provided in
A-73