A Review of Building Evacuation Models - NIST Virtual Library

A.26 EgressPro
Developer: P. Simenko, SimCo Consulting, AU
Purpose of the model: The purpose of this model is to predict egress times from a deterministic
time-line analysis for a single user-selected room, corridor, and stair arrangement 11, 109 . The
model is a tool for assessing egress conditions during fire emergencies in buildings.
Availability to the public for use: The model was available through SimCo Consulting,
although the developer has said that the model is over 6 years old and he is no longer selling it.
Modeling method: This is a movement model.
Structure of model: This is a coarse network system. The model acknowledges only a room,
corridor, and stair arrangement.
Perspective of model: The model views the occupants globally as a certain number of
occupants per floor moving as a homogeneous mass to the exit. The occupants also view the
building with a global perspective because there is only one exit to travel to.
Occupant behavior: No behavior is modeled.
Occupant movement: EgressPro models the process of egress movement by following the
general concepts of traffic flow. The flow of groups is based on the relationship between speed
of movement and the population density in the space. The occupant density (dependent upon the
use of the space) can be chosen by the user from an input table and the program will multiply the
density value by the room area, which determines the initial number of people in the room. Or,
the user may simply choose the number of occupant in the space.
Output: “Stair/Corridor Egress Time” is calculated as the output. This is the time interval from
the time when the first occupant enters the stair to the time when the last occupant exits the final
exit door.
Use of fire data: User input of a specific fire.
Import CAD drawings: No. The user supplies data to the model, such as each room/space
geometry and egress door size. Also, the travel distance along the line of travel on the stair slope
and the riser/tread geometry are entered by the user.
Visualization capabilities: None.
Validation studies: The model’s Help file is said to provide a case study that verifies EgressPro
results. Access to the help file was not available.
A-94