Review of 28 Egress Models.
Review of 28 Egress Models.
(209 K)
Kuligowski, E. D.
NIST SP 1032; January 2005.
Workshop on Building Occupant Movement During Fire
Emergencies. Proceedings. Session 4.4. June 10-11,
2004, Gaithersburg, MD, Peacock, R. D.; Kuligowski, E.
D., Editor(s)(s), 68-90 pp, 2005.
Keywords:
occupants; people movement; emergencies; egress;
evacuation; life safety; fire models; human behavior;
fire data
Abstract:
Evacuation calculations are increasingly becoming a part
of performance-based analyses to assess the level of
life safety provided in buildings. In some cases,
engineers are using back-of-the-envelope (hand)
calculations to assess life safety, and in others,
evacuation models are being used. Hand calculations
usually follow the equations given in the Emergency
Movement Chapter of the Society of Fire Protection
Engineers (SFPE) Handbook to calculate mass flow
evacuation from any height of building. The occupants
are assumed to be standing at the doorway to the stair
on each floor as soon as the evacuation begins. The
calculation focuses mainly on points of constriction
throughout the building (commonly the door to the
outside) and calculates the time for the occupants to
flow past that point and to the outside. To achieve a
more realistic evacuation calculation, engineers have
been looking to evacuation computer models to assess a
building's life safety. Currently, there are a number of
evacuation models to choose from, each with unique
characteristics and specialties. A concern with current
evacuation models is whether they can accurately
simulate the unique scenarios that accompany a certain
type of building. How would a user know which model to
choose for his/her design?
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899