The numerical analysis of mass evacuation in Taipei 101 with control volume model

Abstract

Issues of safety evacuation of super high-rise buildings for emergencies have been attracting a lot of studies, especially after the disaster of WTC 9/11. In this study, the numerical results and dynamic processes of mass evacuation of a super high rise building are investigated by using the control volume model. The evacuation process of this model is divided into five stages and based on the assumptions of homogeneous flow with merge flow ratio where the exit flows from different floors meet and merge together. The super high-rise building, Taipei 101 is chosen for the object of evacuation simulation building, which is about 508 m tall. Seven scenarios, which content as total building evacuation and phased evacuation, are analyzed by using various values of the parameters which influenced the evacuation process in the building including walking speed, coefficient of flow rate, and merge flow ratio etc. The numerical results of mass evacuation are found to be in good agreement with the result of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) first-order approximation and indicate that the evacuation processes are highly dependent on the parameters of walking speed and specific flow. Furthermore, the dynamic characteristics of the evacuation process at each time-step for each floor are presented and discussed.