Emergency Evacuation Modeling: A Novel Approach to Layout Designs and Evacuation Procedures

Abstract

The development of evacuation models in the last three decades has mainly contributed to the assessment of occupant safety and evacuation procedures in a variety of building designs, under a range of environmental conditions. The effectiveness of such evaluation relies mainly on the models ability to reflect the detailed interactions between the occupant, building design, and environment. The purpose of this study is to present emergency evacuation modeling as a novel approach to layout designs and evacuation procedures. The approach is based on the development of a novel evacuation model that adjusts its outputs to evaluate a range of layout designs. The proposed evacuation model relies on the application of evolutionary computation techniques to assess the means of egress by evolving the location and number of exits needed to ensure occupants safety. The performance of the algorithms varies by occupant behavior. The study suggests that the algorithms have the potential to be implemented in more complex design problems. The study further suggests the need to validate the configurations found by the algorithms by conducting actual evacuation drills.