Abstract
The time needed to evacuate a building depends on many factors. Some are related to people’s behavior, while others are related to the physical characteristics of the building. This paper analyzes the historical data of 47 evacuation drills in 15 different university buildings, both academic and residential, involving more than 19 000 persons. We propose the study of the data presented using a dimensionless analysis and statistical regression in order to give a prediction of the ratio between exit time and the number of people evacuated. The results obtained show that this approach could be a useful tool for comparing buildings of this type, and that it represents a promising research topic which can also be extended to other types of buildings.
Highlights
To implement the evacuation of an entire facility requires a great organizational effort, where all the staff is involved
We propose the study of the data using a dimensionless analysis and statistical regression in order to give a prediction of the time ratio between exit time and the number of people evacuated
In order to manage the characteristics of the buildings, we propose the use of a coefficient called “Characterization of Building Evacuations” (CBE)
Summary
To implement the evacuation of an entire facility requires a great organizational effort, where all the staff is involved. Given the CBE for a particular building and the number of people occupying it, we are able to calculate an estimated exit time Comparing this estimated exit time with the real values obtained in evacuation drills, more informed decisions on whether to invest in more training and/or preventive culture of the occupants or to invest in structural improvements of the buildings can be taken. We have analyzed the historical information collected by the University of Valladolid over the last decade from a total of 47 evacuation drills of 15 university buildings, both academic and residential, invoving 19 198 occupants and 688 external observers.
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