
SIMULATING OCCUPANT INTERACTION WITH SMOKE
This project involved developing an ability to simulate the evacuation
performance of people in smoke conditions using the buildingEXODUS
evacuation
model.
When evacuating through fire environments, the presence of smoke may
not only have a physiological impact on the evacuees but may also lead
occupants to adapt their evacuation strategy through the adoption of another
exit. This project attempts to introduce this type of adaptive behaviour
into the buildingEXODUS evacuation model through enabling occupants to
make decisions concerning the selection of the most viable available exit
during an evacuation involving a fire hazard. The development of
this adaptive behaviour requires the introduction of several new capabilities:
a localised representation of the occupants' familiarity with the structure
and the occupant’s behavioural response when faced with a smoke barrier.
The appropriateness of the redirection decision is dependent upon behavioural
data gathered from real fire incidents that is used to construct the redirection
probabilities. This data is limited and is based on findings in the
U.K. and U.S.A, primarily for incidents in residential properties and it
should therefore be used with caution in other applications.
As new and more sophisticated evidence arises, so the behavioural features
will evolve. It is hoped that in the future, fire investigators,
fire brigades and human behaviour researchers will attempt to collect this
data. The introduction of these behaviours increases the functionality
of the buildingEXODUS model. It is intended that the adaptive capabilities
of the occupant will be further extended to include reaction to communication,
affiliative behaviour, occupant motivation and a stochastic element to
the queuing recommitment behaviour. For this development to occur
and to establish an acceptable level of confidence in the results produced,
more data is required concerning the decision-making process.
The implementation developed has been shown to provide a more complex
and arguably more realistic representation of this behaviour than that
provided previously.
For more information about evacuation modelling and the EXODUS software
visit the EXODUS Web Pages. For a complete listing of EXODUS and evacuation publications visit
the FSEG Publications pages.
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