An evacuation model validation data-set for high-rise construction sites

Abstract

Evacuation of high-rise construction sites is one of the most challenging evacuation scenarios conceivable. Over the past 50 years, very little evacuation research has focused on issues uniquely associated with high-rise construction sites. To address this, FSEG, in collaboration with IOSH and Multiplex, undertook a three-year project to develop an evidence base describing evacuation performance of high-rise construction site workers. This data was used to define a unique evacuation validation data-set for high-rise construction sites. The validation data-set, described in this paper, contains a complete description of the evacuation scenario, including geometry, population, procedures, response times and exit curves. A performance metric is defined which objectively describes the goodness of fit between model predictions and experimental data. Given the level of uncertainty in the validation data-set an objective measure of acceptable agreement between the model prediction and the experimental data is specified for the metric. The level of acceptability is based on the performance of a modified version of buildingEXODUS, which provides a benchmark defining an acceptable level of agreement with the experimental data. The analysis demonstrates that suitably adapted evacuation simulation software can predict the evacuation performance of high-rise construction sites with a reasonable level of accuracy.