A Study on Evacuation Simulation after Earthquake in Consumer Facilities

Abstract

This study attempted to re-create the impact of evacuation obstacles such as moved or tipped furniture and scattered goods on people's evacuation behavior in a building at the time of an earthquake in an evacuation simulation. We conducted an earthquake evacuation simulation of the time required to complete evacuation and evacuation behavior with simulation conditions based on the information obtained through the interviews with representatives of four consumer facilities which actually suffered damage from an earthquake, focusing on people's behavior both when the building was shaking and after the earthquake, the reaction of staff, damage inside the building and evacuation behavior in order to seek the impact of damage inside the building, assuming the tipped or moved furniture and scattered goods would partially block an evacuation route and thus cause a reduction in walking speed. As a result, a phenomenon that people are crowded into sales spaces and passageways causing a traffic jam was re-created on the assumption that evacuation obstacles such as furniture and goods would slow down walking speed.