Children’s evacuation behavioural data of drills and simulation of the horizontal plane in kindergarten

Abstract

The critical factors that impair the evacuation safety come from two aspects: anthropic and architectural design. The behavioural data on children’s evacuation is limited. The quantitative dataset of this study was collected and derived from three evacuation drills which were carried out in a one-storey kindergarten (the children enrolled are 3–6-year-olds) in Dalian, China. The children’s free walking speed was calculated as 1.05 ± 0.11 m/s, and the mean horizontal walking speed during the evacuation is confirmed as 0.86 ± 0.20 m/s. Then, the density, evacuation time and flow rate are analysed. The pre-evacuation time and evacuation behaviours in the classrooms are presented. At the same time, the parameters, including free walking speed and body dimensions, were entered into the Pathfinder, and a similar consistency was observed between the experimental results and the Pathfinder simulation results. The study can be a reference to kindergarten evacuation modelling, simulation, safety strategies and architectural layout design.