A Review of Building Evacuation Models - NIST Virtual Library

occupants. The data from this evacuation was used to assess evacuation models as well as to
understand the sensitivity of the basic input parameters of the model. The simulation of the 3 rd
floor auditorium was restricted to half of the building due to the symmetry of the space, as
shown in the ASERI diagram shown in Figure A.16. The actual pre-movement time of the
theater occupants was used in the simulation as a random delay time. Also, a distribution of the
individual mobility of the occupants was incorporated to produce a range of walking speeds from
0.7 to 1.5 m/s and a body size range of 0.12 m 2 to 0.22 m 2 . It was known from the original
evacuation that persons with restricted mobility were present.
Figure A.17 shows the results from the actual evacuation and the simulation from ASERI.
Figure A.17: Results from the ASERI validation studies of the theater (time in min:s)
50, p. 6
The first row shows the actual results from the evacuation drill of the theater building, including
the evacuation time from the auditorium only (2 nd column). The second row shows the results
for the simulation of the drill as observed for the theater, and the third, fourth, and fifth rows are
changes to the model’s inputs as part of a sensitivity analysis of the model itself. The second
and third rows show the effect of inputting different egress behavior (normal versus danger).
The second and fourth rows show the effects of inputting different individual mobility
(inhomogeneous group versus homogeneous group with unrestricted mobility – able occupants).
And lastly the second and fifth rows show the difference in inputting the number of occupants
into the simulation (82 % of the occupancy which was present at the time of the drill versus 100
% occupancy). The developer notes that the strongest effects on the egress time produced by the
model were due to a change in mobility of the occupants. Also, the first two rows which
contained the observed and simulated evacuation from the theater show very close results in all
three evacuation times.
Monitored evacuation drills were conducted for three high-rise and three school buildings by the
German Federal Office of Construction for the Forschungsstelle fur Brandschutztechnik in
cooperation with the local fire brigades. These evacuation drills were used to validate ASERI as
well as used to calibrate with the Predtechenskii and Milinskii method 13 . After performing a
range of simulations which involved changing of mobility parameters and the presence of smoke
barriers in the building and comparing these to the observed evacuation drills, the developers
stated that, “performing the numerical simulation with an appropriate distribution of mobility
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