Architectural design and emergencies in double staircase high-rise buildings: the effect of geometric shape parameters on travel time

Abstract

Emergency evacuation is a significant matter in high-rise buildings, as large numbers of occupants are in limited space. Evacuation standards and codes used by designers are closely related to interior spaces. However, the relationship between the general geometric shape of buildings and the evacuation process are major gaps in the literature. In this paper, we assessed the effect of three geometric parameters related to the general geometric shape of the building, namely the gyration radius, the average length and width of the bounding rectangle, and the ratio of the perimeter to the area of the shape on the travel time by using the agent-based method. The results show that gyration radius has the most direct relationship with the time of total travel and horizontal travel time and can be used as a suitable tool in the initial design stage used by architects and designers of buildings.