Rapid prototyping a virtual fire drill environment using computer game technology

Conducting fire evacuation drills in modern buildings under realistic fire conditions can be difficult. Typical fire drills do not feature dynamic events such as smoke filled corridors, fires in unexpected places or blocked fire exits that require on the spot decisions from evacuees. One alternative is the use of virtual environments. Virtual environments can support the training and observation of fire evacuee behaviours in 3D virtual buildings. However complex virtual environments can be difficult to build. This paper explores how the reuse of computer game technology can aid in the rapid prototyping of virtual environments which can be populated with fire drill evacuation scenarios. Over a three week period, a single developer constructed a realistic model of a real world building to support virtual fire drill evaluations. While participants in a user study found the simulated environment realistic, performance metrics indicated clustering in the results based on participants’ previous gaming experience.     

Way finding during fire evacuation; an analysis of unannounced fire drills in a hotel at night

Findings in earlier studies on fire evacuation and way finding suggest that building features have influence on evacuation behaviour. For example, way finding is believed to be strongly dependent on the lay-out of the building and seems to be hardly dependent on (escape) route signs. Though some aspects are investigated, it is not discussed at great length. In particular there is little insight in how persons find their escape route, and how this process can be supported with lay-out and design measures has been hardly examined. Thus, there is need for insight in the decision-making processes which evacuees pass through. In this paper are the results presented of 83 evacuation experiments in a hotel building at night. The main focus of the study is on way finding during fire evacuation. In the evacuation experiments we investigated the possible influence of smoke and low placed exit signs on the human fire response performance. The experiments are carried out with a traditional research method, namely the registration and evaluation of unannounced fire drills. The study is conducted as part of the validation of a new research method that makes use of serious gaming. The results of the study suggest that smoke has influence on the route choice: when no smoke is perceptible the majority of the participants escape via the main exit and when smoke blocks the route towards the main exit, the majority of the participants escape via the fire exit. Furthermore, low placed exit signs appear to have a positive influence on the use of the nearest fire exit. The personal feature of prior knowledge of the surroundings (or type of surroundings) is also found to have a positive influence on the use of the nearest fire exit. Self-assessments and interviews after a fire evacuation are found to be a disputable method for research on human behaviour in fire. A real-time observation of the people's behaviour during evacuation is considered to give more reliable results.     

Simulation of high-rise building evacuation considering fatigue factor based on cellular automata: A case study in China

Stair evacuation plays a crucial role in building evacuation since stairs are generally the only means to evacuate high-rises on fire. To ensure safety stair design, the Life Safety Code suggests using a performance-based design approach, which requires evacuation simulations. Most of existing simulations, however, do not consider the structure of stairs and fatigue of evacuees, and these simulations are not validated by real emergency events or experiments. This paper is on improving the simulation of pedestrian flow in the stairs of high-rises by addressing these issues. A new Cellular Automata simulation model is developed where the simulation map is divided into zones based on the stair structure, and the rule of evacuees’ movement for each zone is appropriately defined to simulate turning behavior. To validate the simulation, a fire drill was held in two high-rise buildings. In this drill, evacuees felt tired after a walk. The simulation results demonstrate that, compared with the simulation without fatigue factor, our simulation can predict the evacuation time more accurately. Building designers can make evacuation plans and strategies based on the new simulation.     

A crowd route choice evacuation model in large indoor building spaces

Route choice is a fundamental requirement in the evacuation process. The aim of this paper is to identify a method to simulate crowds in large indoor spaces with consideration of the acoustic system. This paper first extends an existing cellular automaton model and proposes a cellular automaton crowd route choice model (CACR model) to simulate evacuees in large indoor spaces. It then defines a measure for evaluating the utility of evacuation time using the CACR model under different circumstances, such as a fire situation or different voice warning systems, which other commercial models cannot simulate. The analysis of the characteristics of a sound field in large indoor spaces is based on field measurements. An observation experiment in a gymnasium is employed to test the proposed model in a stadium evacuation scenario. The results demonstrate that the CACR model can accurately simulate the evacuation process in large indoor spaces under various circumstances.     

Experimental Study of Elevator Loading and Unloading Time During Evacuation in High-Rise Buildings

To date, there are various types of elevators, such as evacuation elevators, that are being utilized during high-rise building evacuations in several countries, in accordance with their respective building codes. In order to enhance the effectiveness of elevator evacuation, evacuees’ behaviors should be better understood, in this way taking human behavior into consideration will allow for elevators to be better utilized. However, there are few studies on this topic since nearly no elevator evacuation events or experiments have been previously recorded. In this paper, 64 experiments were carried out to study how evacuees behave and what factors influence their behaviors during evacuation. Several key data, such as elevator loading and unloading time, time to open and close elevator doors were collected. We found that loading time (6.0 s) is much shorter than the time to open and close the doors (15.4 s). According to our findings, the number of evacuees influences evacuees’ behaviors when using elevators, but smoke does not. Furthermore, the shapes of queuing, such as arch and line, will influence the duration of time for evacuees going through elevator doors. The evacuees in the arch shape (5.3 s) pass faster than those in the line shape (6.4 s). Several interesting phenomena were observed in our experiments, such as push, hesitation, re-entering the elevator, stair-preference, and social bonding. Finally, several suggestions, such as the width of doors and the design of elevator lobbies, are proposed to building designers on the issues mentioned above. The basic data of our experiments can be used to calibrate and validate elevator evacuation simulations.     

Modelling occupant interaction with fire conditions using the buildingEXODUS evacuation model

When evacuating through fire environments, the presence of smoke may not only have a physiological impact on the evacuees but may also lead occupants to adapt their evacuation strategy through the adoption of another exit. This paper attempts to introduce this type of adaptive behaviour within the buildingEXODUS evacuation model through enabling occupants to make decisions concerning the selection of the most viable available exit during an evacuation involving fire. The development of this adaptive behaviour requires the introduction of several new capabilities namely, the representation of the occupants’ familiarity with the structure, the behaviour of an occupant that is engulfed in smoke and the behaviour of an occupant that is faced with a smoke barrier. The appropriateness of the redirection decision is dependent upon behavioural data gathered from real fire incidents (in the UK and USA) that is used to construct the redirection probabilities. The implementation is shown to provide a more complex and arguably more realistic representation of this behaviour than that provided previously.     

紫荆山地铁站应急疏散计算分析与安全评估

以郑州市紫荆山地铁站的站台二号线列车火灾和站厅公共区火灾为例,结合GB/T 33668-2017《地铁安全疏散规范》以及NFPA 130- 2017,Standard for Fixed GuidewayTransit and Passenger Rail Systems 中人员安全疏散的相关规定,分别计算疏散时间并对其进行安全评估。计算结果表明：根据GB/T 33668-2017 计算,站台二号线列车火灾时,疏散时间为345.64 s,站厅公共区火灾时疏散时间为339.18 s,均符合6 min的安全疏散要求。而根据NFPA 130-2017 计算,站台二号线列车火灾时疏散时间为557.78 s,站厅公共区火灾时疏散时间为400.46 s,均不符合6 min 的安全疏散要求。最后,针对以上疏散时间计算结果的不同,从疏散过程安全区的选择、疏散路径的选择、疏散设施的疏散能力、人员疏散速度4 方面进行差异分析,为地铁应急疏散相关法规的制订修订和应急管理提供参考。     

基于 BIM 与 Pathfinder 的楼梯间堆积物对高层住宅建筑人群疏散影响研究

高层住宅建筑发生火灾时,楼梯间作为主要逃生通道,保证其畅通性尤为重要,但楼梯间堆积物却是人群疏散的主要阻碍。利用 BIM 与 Pathfinder 软件相结合,建立应急疏散仿真模型,设定 574 名不同年龄阶段的疏散人员参与模拟,在Steering 行为模式下进行仿真,分别研究堆积物摆放面积、摆放形状及摆放位置对高层住宅建筑人群疏散时间、疏散速度及拥堵情况产生的影响,并以此为高层住宅建筑楼梯间的规范管理提供理论依据。     

Developing a database for emergency evacuation model

Performance-based design (PBD) has been playing an important function in fire safety of buildings, and how to accurately simulate occupants’ behavior gains attention from fire engineers. With booming development of evacuation software, developing an extensive database for evacuation models is imperative and urgent. According to the literature, the whole process of evacuation includes several stages, such as pre-movement, action period, walking period, etc. In order to develop an evacuation model, data in these stages concerning pre-movement time, walking speed, occupant characteristics, actions and exit choice decisions are compiled in this paper. These data can be used as input parameters for evacuation models in PBD or in validating the evacuation models’ accuracy.     

多出口选择中的几何影响因素定量化研究

成功预测逃生者对出口的选择对于建筑师和消防评估人员都非常重要,它直接关系到设计或评估的可靠性.本研究从建筑学的视角出发,定量分析了空间设计中有关出口的6项几何特征是如何影响逃生者对其的选择的.通过将虚拟逃生实验技术与二元回归统计方法相结合,解决了该领域研究所面临的现实环境中出口几何特征组合案例有限、特征难以以抽象形式独...     

An Intelligent Evacuation,Rescue and Recovery Concept

Recent terrorist incidents have demonstrated that personnel responsible for decision-making in post-attack and structural fire evacuation, rescue and recovery (ERR) activities can significantly benefit from an expert decision support system. In this paper, a concept is proposed for such an expert system that, through the use of sensor technology, can permit real-time assessment of the extent of blast and fire damage to a building, can recommend immediate actions that can be taken to mitigate the situation and prevent further deterioration, can monitor the growth and spread of fire and smoke, and can be used to aid the rescue workers and evacuees in rescue efforts and safe egress. This comprehensive system, once fully operational, can be used for training, blast damage assessment (BDA), target vulnerability assessment (TVA), pre-event emergency preparedness planning, and post-attack ERR operations. The key capabilities of this system stem from the electronic integration of two critical components: a near real-time intelligent BDA/TVA tool and on-line ERR-related optimization techniques. The implementation of this concept will support faster and more efficient evacuation of a building, ship, or other large structure in the event of military attack, fire, natural disaster, chemical attack, discovery of hazardous materials or biological agents, or other circumstances warranting quick escape.     

A Hybrid Bilevel Model for the Optimal Shelter Assignment in Emergency Evacuations

Abstract: The rise in natural and man‐made disasters in recent years has led to an increased interest in emergency evacuation planning. Athough the vast majority of the existing evacuation planning models assumes system optimal (cooperative) behavior, recent research has shown that during large evacuations people tend to exhibit selfish (noncooperative) behavior. This article presents a hybrid bilevel model that balances both behavioral assumptions (in the upper level, shelter assignment occurs in a system optimal fashion, whereas evacuees are free to choose how to reach their assigned shelters in the lower level), hence providing a model that is more in line with the current state‐of‐the‐knowledge of human behavior during disasters. The proposed model is solved using a simulated annealing algorithm. A hypothetical evacuation scenario in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, illustrates the proposed model. We demonstrate that the resulting evacuation strategies can be significantly different from conventional system optimal evacuation plans.     

Smart dynamic evacuation planning and online management using vehicular communication system

During disasters, swiftly and efficiently evacuating populations in hazardous situations is crucial to minimize losses. This study proposes a novel framework to address dynamic population evacuation (DPE) problems, which includes planning and online evacuation management phases facilitated by vehicular communication. In the planning phase, a shelter allocation problem (SAP) is solved dynamically for destination choice and a dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) for path choice toward the chosen destinations to obtain an initial evacuation plan. The initial plan is then enhanced by employing a vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) within the vehicular edge computing (VEC) architecture. This enhancement enables communication among evacuees, allowing them to revise their vehicle's route choice and planned destination. These revisions take into account the changing risk and traffic conditions. The proposed online DPE framework is applied to the real evacuation scenario of Mill Valley City, CA. The proposed model is evaluated with different VANET architectures, including vehicular cloud computing (VCC) and VEC. The results show that the VEC framework outperforms other configurations and improves the evacuation process compared to the scenario with an initial plan by more than 30% in network clearance time. Additionally, a performance analysis is carried out for evacuation scenarios with different penetration rates of connected vehicles in VANET.     

鲁台经贸展览中心“亚安全区”设计的可行性

针对鲁台经贸展览中心公共大厅防火分区面积过大的问题,提出"亚安全区"的概念,通过设定火灾场景,对人员疏散、火灾蔓延、钢结构防火保护进行分析,确定其防火设计仅用作人员通行,起到缓冲疏散的作用。     

大型商业综合体人员安全疏散策略研究

针对商业综合体中人员疏散的滞留问题，探究人员安全疏散策略的引导作用。采用静态合作博弈论方法，进行路径优化。对某商业综合体典型区域从防火分区、疏散走道和疏散楼梯三方面进行人员疏散仿真模拟，对比人员安全引导疏散与传统疏散，结果表明优化后人员的疏散效率有显著提升；人员安全疏散引导人员从多个疏散出口进行逃生，在缓解了人员滞留问题的同时提高了在复杂环境中疏散出口的利用效率；博弈论路径优化明确了人员可选择逃生路径的数量，提高人员疏散效率。     

Analysis and Modeling of Pedestrian Flow in a Confined Corridor Focusing on the Headway Distance and Velocity of Pedestrians

Fire Technology - In fire evacuation situations, at corridors, many evacuees are plagued by high density, low velocity, and long waiting time. Therefore, engineers have to consider the...     

The effect of occupant characteristics on crawling speed in evacuation

The movement of occupants is a key element in the development of evacuation models, which estimate the required evacuation time to reach an exit. The deterioration of environmental conditions influences occupants to adopt new responses. This study investigates crawling movement as a physical response to environmental conditions during a fire. The study investigates occupant crawling speed compared with walking speed, and the effect of occupant characteristics; gender and body composition (BMI), on crawling during an evacuation. Eighteen subjects (nine males and nine females) within the 19–29 age stratum participated in the study (normal, overweight, and obese body composition). The findings indicate a statistical significance between normal walking and crawling speeds. Further, the study statistically demonstrates that both gender and body composition significantly impact individual crawling speed as they are unique individual characteristics. More research is needed to better understand the effect of age group, mobility capabilities, and fatigue on crawling speed. The study concludes that the development of crawling data and its representation in evacuation models will enhance the accuracy of evacuation models, and better evaluate the safety of evacuees.     

A proposed pedestrian waiting-time model for improving space–time use efficiency in stadium evacuation scenarios

Efficiency is a fundamental requirement in evacuation planning and operations. The “faster-is-slower” phenomenon in pedestrian evacuation has been observed and deemed a significant obstacle to evacuation efficiency. This paper thus focuses on two aspects of evacuation planning in the case of stadium evacuation. The first is to define a space–time use efficiency measure for evaluating the utility of both space and time resources. The second is to propose a pedestrian waiting-time model for directing evacuees to alleviate evacuation bottlenecks. An agent-based simulation approach was employed to test the proposed model in stadium evacuation scenarios. The results demonstrate that compelled, or mandatory, waiting time strategy generated by this model is helpful in improving the space–time use efficiency of network links in the evacuation process by virtue of the strategically timed moving–waiting–restarting movement pattern of evacuees. The analysis of space–time evacuation paths in this study provides a practical and insightful alternative for measuring evacuation effectiveness. Results of this study compared reasonably against an existing cellular automaton based simulation both in microscopic and macroscopic perspectives. A number of future research directions were presented.     

基于最不利点视角的多出口建筑应急疏散模型

为有效评估多出口建筑的人群应急疏散能力,从各疏散路径的最不利点视角分析其疏散过程,首先建立预作用时间、通行时间、滞留时间、步行时间等4 个时间段的控制方程及最不利点人员通行时间计算算法,然后构建多出口建筑的人群疏散数学模型。以西安某地铁换乘站为原型,通过数学模型和仿真模型分别计算车站的人员疏散时间。结果表明：疏散过程中,某条疏散路径的最不利点疏散人员在某个通行结构上消耗的通行时间不仅与该结构的通行能力有关,还与到达该通行结构之前经过的所有通行结构的通行能力及它们相互之间的需疏散人数有关;楼梯通行能力以及人员在楼梯上的移动速度均与楼梯宽度呈正相关关系,与人体厚度和宽度呈负相关关系。该疏散模型与仿真模型的计算时间误差仅为1.47%。