Simulation on fire emergency evacuation in special subway station based on Pathfinder

Qin, Jiawen; Liu, Changcheng; Huang, Que

doi:10.1016/j.csite.2020.100677

Cited by 119 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…It is based on simulations using Pathfinder. Although the platform is frequently used in research (e.g., [8,[37][38][39]), it would be prudent to experiment with other simulation engines to check whether the results are sensitive to the choice of the simulator. The gist of this research was to measure the impact of bespoke messages sent to occupants' smartphones.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pathfinder [36] was selected as a reliable agent-based egress simulator and is a tool that has been used in several fire evacuation studies [37][38][39]. Constraining evacuees (simulated agents in Pathfinder) to take particular exit routes was used as a proxy to model the delivery and following of customised evacuation instructions to actual evacuees.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Customising Evacuation Instructions for High-Rise Residential Occupants to Expedite Fire Egress: Results from Agent-Based Simulation

Gerges

Demian

Adamu

2021

Fire

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As the possibility of safe escape is one of the most crucial aspects of a building’s fire safety features, understanding of human behaviour under fire conditions is important for a successful evacuation. Although most of today’s buildings are equipped with fire safety systems, a fire can still occur at anytime and anywhere in a building and have devastating consequences. In the last decade, researchers and practitioners have used information technology to assist with fire safety design and emergency management. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an exemplar process whose underpinning digital technology has been helpful for fire safety design, simulation, and analysis, but there is a lack of research on how BIM-based models combined with agent-based simulations can help improve evacuation via effective navigation and wayfinding in high-rise residential buildings. Customising evacuation instructions based on BIM, simulation results and occupant location, and delivery of these bespoke instructions to occupants’ smartphones during a fire emergency is relatively novel and research is needed to realise the potential of this approach. Therefore, this study investigates how customised evacuation instructions delivered to each occupant in a high-rise residential building could result in a faster evacuation during a fire incident. The research adopted a case study building and used Pathfinder (agent-based evacuation simulation software) to simulate evacuation from this eleven-floor high-rise residential building in Cairo, Egypt. Constraining evacuees (simulated agents in Pathfinder) to take particular exit routes was used as a proxy for delivering customised evacuation instructions to actual evacuees. Simulation results show that, in general, allowing the use of lifts for the benefit of disabled occupants could lead to their misuse by able-bodied occupants; evacuees would attempt to use the first visible point of exit regardless of how crowded it is. With optimally customised instructions, the evacuation time was, on average, 17.6 min (almost 50%) shorter than when the occupant’s choice of egress route was simulated based on standard path planning factors such as route length, nearby crowds and visible hazards. With evacuation instructions sent via smartphones, occupants could exit more rapidly via alternative routes. Such bespoke instructions were shown to reduce the adverse effects of crowdedness and uneven distribution of occupants along vertical and horizontal evacuation routes on evacuation time.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Customising Evacuation Instructions for High-Rise Residential Occupants to Expedite Fire Egress: Results from Agent-Based Simulation

Gerges

Demian

Adamu

2021

Fire

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“…According to the report released by the Ministry of Emergency Management of China, 1045 people were killed by fire in residential and public buildings in 2019, accounting for 78.3% of the total fire fatalities [ 1 ], which clearly reveals the urgent need of reducing the fire hazards in public buildings [ 2 , 3 ]. Due to the suddenness of fire and the intricate interior space of public buildings, emergency and evacuation are full of uncertainties in a fire scenario [ 4 , 5 ], making it vital to provide a safe and reliable indoor rescue route for the evacuees [ 6 , 7 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

BIM and Computer Vision-Based Framework for Fire Emergency Evacuation Considering Local Safety Performance

Deng

Zhang

et al. 2021

Sensors

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Fire hazard in public buildings may result in serious casualties due to the difficulty of evacuation caused by intricate interior space and unpredictable development of fire situations. It is essential to provide safe and reliable indoor navigation for people trapped in the fire. Distinguished from the global shortest rescue route planning, a framework focusing on the local safety performance is proposed for emergency evacuation navigation. Sufficiently utilizing the information from Building Information Modeling (BIM), this framework automatically constructs geometry network model (GNM) through Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and integrates computer vision for indoor positioning. Considering the available local egress time (ALET), a back propagation (BP) neural network is applied for adjusting the rescue route according to the fire situation, improving the local safety performance of evacuation. A campus building is taken as an example for proving the feasibility of the framework proposed. The result indicates that the rescue route generated by proposed framework is secure and reasonable. The proposed framework provides an idea for using real-time images only to implement the automatic generation of rescue route when a fire hazard occurs, which is passive, cheap, and convenient.

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“…By the end of 2020, a total of 6300 kilometers of subway lines had been built in China. Due to the closed environment of the underground space and consistently high pedestrian flow, one of the key issues for subway security are fire accidents that could lead to overwhelming injuries and casualties [1][2][3]. Statistics have shown that about 85% of the casualties were attributed to the toxic smoke during fire accidents rather than the flame [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation on the Effect of Platform Height on Smoke Characteristics of Fire Scenarios for Subway Stations

et al. 2021

Sustainability

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In this study, three full-scale experiments and a series of numerical simulations were conducted to investigate the influence of subway platform height and atrium ceiling height of subway stations on smoke control by mechanical exhausting systems. The smoke temperature variation with time, maximum temperature distribution, and smoke stratification were discussed. Results showed that the atrium had capacity to store smoke, especially at the early stage of smoke spread. However, the efficiency of smoke extraction did not increase simply with the rise in platform height and atrium ceiling height, and favorable smoke exhaust velocity was crucial for smoke elimination. The optimal smoke exhaust velocity was studied by numerical simulation and it was found that the area of smoke diffusion in subway stations with a higher platform was significantly smaller under the optimal smoke exhaust velocity. In addition, a prediction model of optimal smoke exhaust velocity with subway platform height was proposed. This study could provide on-site data and smoke spread characteristics for smoke control design, operation, and, significantly, guide safety evacuation of the exhaust system of subway stations.

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Simulation on fire emergency evacuation in special subway station based on Pathfinder

Cited by 119 publications

References 4 publications

Customising Evacuation Instructions for High-Rise Residential Occupants to Expedite Fire Egress: Results from Agent-Based Simulation

Customising Evacuation Instructions for High-Rise Residential Occupants to Expedite Fire Egress: Results from Agent-Based Simulation

BIM and Computer Vision-Based Framework for Fire Emergency Evacuation Considering Local Safety Performance

Investigation on the Effect of Platform Height on Smoke Characteristics of Fire Scenarios for Subway Stations

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