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Representing evacuation behavior in engineering terms

Gwynne, Steven ; Kuligowski, Erica and Nilsson, Daniel LU (2012) In Journal of Fire Protection Engineering 22(2). p.133-150
Abstract
In performance-based analyses, engineers evaluate whether a building design and/or evacuation procedure allows occupants sufficient time to evacuate before fire conditions become untenable. Guidance exists for the calculation of the time until conditions become untenable in areas of the structure (known as the available safe egress time) during fire situations. This article presents a method for determining the amount of time required for building occupants to reach a defined point of safety (known as the required safe egress time) for a particular building design or scenario. The method requires the engineer to identify real-world factors from the building conditions/situations that influence human performance (e.g. evacuation),... (More)
In performance-based analyses, engineers evaluate whether a building design and/or evacuation procedure allows occupants sufficient time to evacuate before fire conditions become untenable. Guidance exists for the calculation of the time until conditions become untenable in areas of the structure (known as the available safe egress time) during fire situations. This article presents a method for determining the amount of time required for building occupants to reach a defined point of safety (known as the required safe egress time) for a particular building design or scenario. The method requires the engineer to identify real-world factors from the building conditions/situations that influence human performance (e.g. evacuation), understand the nature of their impact on human performance and then represent this impact in terms that can be employed within evacuation model calculations. An example is also presented to demonstrate the method described here. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Evacuation, human behaviour, performance-based design, evacuation models
in
Journal of Fire Protection Engineering
volume
22
issue
2
pages
133 - 150
publisher
SAGE Publications
external identifiers
  • wos:000303018500003
  • scopus:84860203437
ISSN
1042-3915
DOI
10.1177/1042391512436788
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
46f02b43-ed34-4e6d-a7f4-7586c605e2d7 (old id 2563242)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 13:44:07
date last changed
2022-01-27 20:42:57
@article{46f02b43-ed34-4e6d-a7f4-7586c605e2d7,
  abstract     = {{In performance-based analyses, engineers evaluate whether a building design and/or evacuation procedure allows occupants sufficient time to evacuate before fire conditions become untenable. Guidance exists for the calculation of the time until conditions become untenable in areas of the structure (known as the available safe egress time) during fire situations. This article presents a method for determining the amount of time required for building occupants to reach a defined point of safety (known as the required safe egress time) for a particular building design or scenario. The method requires the engineer to identify real-world factors from the building conditions/situations that influence human performance (e.g. evacuation), understand the nature of their impact on human performance and then represent this impact in terms that can be employed within evacuation model calculations. An example is also presented to demonstrate the method described here.}},
  author       = {{Gwynne, Steven and Kuligowski, Erica and Nilsson, Daniel}},
  issn         = {{1042-3915}},
  keywords     = {{Evacuation; human behaviour; performance-based design; evacuation models}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{133--150}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  series       = {{Journal of Fire Protection Engineering}},
  title        = {{Representing evacuation behavior in engineering terms}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1042391512436788}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/1042391512436788}},
  volume       = {{22}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}