Staircase evacuation for public multi-storey housing in Malaysia

Abstract

There has been some concern about the evacuation safety aspects in public multi-storey housing in Malaysia. This paper aims to study the effects of increased occupancy towards evacuation duration in public multi-storey housing in Malaysia, to gain a better understanding of evacuation safety. The research methodology is through a simulation study. This paper focuses on the staircase availability and location, in relation to the increasing number of evacuees. The data analysed include the duration taken by occupants to reach safety and their movement patterns during evacuation through a simulation study. A 17-storey residential building is modelled and the effects of staircases with varied availability and locations on the evacuees are tested. Results show that higher number of occupancies and non-availability of the staircase could prolong the evacuation. Moreover, the location of staircases does not influence the evacuation time but contributes significant changes to the movement of the evacuees.