A Review of Building Evacuation Models - NIST Virtual Library
A Review of Building Evacuation Models - NIST Virtual Library
A Review of Building Evacuation Models - NIST Virtual Library
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parameters yields realistic results, as already demonstrated by the investigation <strong>of</strong> other<br />
evacuation drills.” For the tallest building, a 21-story <strong>of</strong>fice building with 1400 occupants, the<br />
calculated total evacuation times ranged between 616 s and 648 s, with a mean value <strong>of</strong> 627 s,<br />
while the measured evacuation time for the structure was 629 s. More information on this<br />
validation case study is provided in ASERI references.<br />
The final case study to be discussed in this section involved the evacuation from a hotel<br />
conducted by the Norwegian SINTEF organization. The input information provided to the<br />
model for this case study involved the building layout, means <strong>of</strong> egress, geometrical staircase<br />
information, location and the sequence <strong>of</strong> the fire incident, and the communication events put in<br />
place by the evacuation plan. The evacuation case that follows the evacuation plan is called the<br />
“schedule case” and actual observation <strong>of</strong> the drill is referred to as the “actual case.” Also,<br />
information about the occupants was available such as the gender, age, room number, and<br />
activity engaged in before evacuation began. The staff was not included in the egress movement<br />
during the simulation, but was modeled to perform actions during the alarming sequence. Also,<br />
delay and response times associated with certain occupant actions were included in the<br />
simulation. The occupant total was 104, and since the available egress routes were many, the<br />
evacuation was not influenced by crowding. As mentioned earlier, runs were performed in<br />
ASERI to simulate 1) immediate evacuation <strong>of</strong> all occupants at the start <strong>of</strong> the fire alarm, 2) the<br />
scheduled case, and 3) the actual case. According to the developers, the actual case was very<br />
much in agreement with the observation <strong>of</strong> the monitored hotel drill. The only difference noted<br />
was that “the number <strong>of</strong> occupants not leaving the guest rooms or returning into the room was<br />
much larger than predicted by the simulation.” The developers relate this discrepancy to the fact<br />
that the information available was ambiguous in the drill, resulting in guests ignoring the alarm.<br />
Additional validation studies can be found in the referenced ASERI publications.<br />
Special features:<br />
Manual exit block/obstacles – Yes, if smoke is very heavy.<br />
Fire conditions affect behavior Yes, the output <strong>of</strong> KOBRA-3D can be transferred to ASERI<br />
through a cut and paste method.<br />
Defining groups – Yes, because <strong>of</strong> the ability to assign each individual certain mobility<br />
parameters (body size, walking speed, and behavioral conditions) as well as providing a<br />
distribution <strong>of</strong> these for a specified group.<br />
Disabilities/slow occupant groups – Yes, walking speed and increased body size can be<br />
specified.<br />
Delays/pre-movement time – Delays are achieved either by assigning alarm and reaction times or<br />
introducing intermediate stop positions.<br />
Toxicity <strong>of</strong> the occupants – Yes.<br />
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