Abstract
As the evacuation problem has attracted and continues to attract a series of researchers due to its high importance both for saving human lives and for reducing the material losses in such situations, the present paper analyses whether the evacuation doors configuration in the case of classrooms and lecture halls matters in reducing the evacuation time. For this aim, eighteen possible doors configurations have been considered along with five possible placements of desks and chairs. The doors configurations have been divided into symmetrical and asymmetrical clusters based on the two doors positions within the room. An agent-based model has been created in NetLogo which allows a fast configuration of the classrooms and lecture halls in terms of size, number of desks and chairs, desks and chair configuration, exits’ size, the presence of fallen objects, type of evacuees and their speed. The model has been used for performing and analyzing various scenarios. Based on these results, it has been observed that, in most cases, the symmetrical doors configurations provide good/optimal results, while only some of the asymmetrical doors configurations provide comparable/better results. The model is configurable and can be used in various scenarios.
Highlights
The current paper aims to analyze if the position of the exit doors has an impact on the evacuation time by considering situations in which the two evacuating doors are placed in a symmetrical and in a non-symmetrical/asymmetrical position
There is a series of agent-based modeling software, free of charge, which can be used for simulation and for the design of the complex environments needed for depicting a building or a class in the evacuation process
The evacuation time for the cases in which a jumped object is on the floor compared to the cases in which no object has fallen faces an increase of approximately 1.46%–1.52%, which can be considered minor
Summary
Evacuation problems have attracted a large audience over the time, as emergency situations might occur at any time and in any place, producing a series of damages from a material point of view, but even from the magnitude and the number of causalities they might produce. While setting up a good emergency plan is among the major and necessarily functions for educational institutions in order to offer protection and timely response to such a situation [55], improving other aspects related to the evacuation process—such as constantly evaluating the emergency plans, a proper set up of the desks and chairs with the classroom, providing larger corridors and larger evacuation doors or a proper placement of these evacuation doors—can be of great importance [56,57,58] In this context, the current paper aims to analyze if the position of the exit doors has an impact on the evacuation time by considering situations in which the two evacuating doors are placed in a symmetrical and in a non-symmetrical/asymmetrical position.
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