Simulation Model of Evacuation Behavior during a Fire for Evaluating Life Safety of Occupants in a Building

Abstract

This paper discusses a simulation model of evacuation behavior from a building during a fire. To evaluate life safety of occupants against a fire, simulation of evacuation behavior could be used. The evacuation and smoke movement interactive simulation model has been developed to handle the evacuation of large populations of individuals with mixed abilities. The system is a deterministic simulation program implemented by the agent-based computer language, Repast. The advantages of the model are: 1) to handle evacuation of individual evacuees considering variety of behavioral parameters, 2) to handle total evacuation in a multi-story building via the stairs, 3) to consider interactions between egress behavior and spread of smoke in a building. Two case studies were carried out to examine the simulation model. The one is total evacuation for a five stories building and the other is remodeling of the Nagasakiya Amagasaki store fire occurred in 1990.