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Movement on Stairs During Building Evacuations

Kuligowski, Erica D. ; Peacock, Richard D. ; Reneke, Paul A. ; Weiss, Emily ; Hagwood, Charles R. ; Overholt, Kristopher J. ; Elkin, Rena P. ; Averill, Jason D. ; Ronchi, Enrico LU orcid and Hoskins, Bryan L. , et al. (2014) In Technical Note
Abstract
The time that it takes an occupant population to reach safety when descending a stair during building evacuations is typically estimated by measureable engineering variables such as stair geometry, speed, stair density, and pre-observation delay. In turn, engineering models of building evacuation use these variables to predict the performance of egress systems for building

design, emergency planning, or event reconstruction. As part of a program to better understand occupant movement and behavior during building emergencies, the Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been collecting stair movement

data during fire drill evacuations of office and residential buildings. These... (More)
The time that it takes an occupant population to reach safety when descending a stair during building evacuations is typically estimated by measureable engineering variables such as stair geometry, speed, stair density, and pre-observation delay. In turn, engineering models of building evacuation use these variables to predict the performance of egress systems for building

design, emergency planning, or event reconstruction. As part of a program to better understand occupant movement and behavior during building emergencies, the Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been collecting stair movement

data during fire drill evacuations of office and residential buildings. These data collections are intended to provide a better understanding of this principal building egress feature and develop a

technical foundation for future codes and standards requirements. NIST has collected fire drill evacuation data in 14 buildings (11 office buildings and 3 residential buildings) ranging from six to 62 stories in height that have included a range

of stair widths and occupant densities. A total of more than 22000 individual measurements are included in the data set.

This report provides details of the

data collected, an analysis of the data, and examples of the use of the data. The intention is to better understand movement during stair evacuations and provide

data to test the predictive capability of building egress models.

While mean movement speeds in the current

study of 0.44 m/s ± 0.19 m/s are observed to be quite similar to the range of values in previous studies, mean local movement speeds as occupants traverse down the stairs are seen to vary widely within a given stair, ranging from 0.10 m/s ± 0.008 m/s to 1.7 m/s ± 0.13 m/s. These data

provide confirmation of the adequacy of

existing literature values typically used for occupant movement speeds and provide updated data for use in egress modeling or other engineering calculations. (Less)
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organization
publishing date
type
Book/Report
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Disabled, egress, egress modeling, evacuation, fire safety, human behavior, mobility impairments
in
Technical Note
pages
212 pages
publisher
National Institute of Standards and Technology
report number
1839
DOI
10.6028/NIST.TN.1839
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7bf85692-8931-498a-8fc0-8b17d4d123c0 (old id 4695317)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 10:17:11
date last changed
2018-11-21 20:57:53
@techreport{7bf85692-8931-498a-8fc0-8b17d4d123c0,
  abstract     = {{The time that it takes an occupant population to reach safety when descending a stair during building evacuations is typically estimated by measureable engineering variables such as stair geometry, speed, stair density, and pre-observation delay. In turn, engineering models of building evacuation use these variables to predict the performance of egress systems for building<br/><br>
design, emergency planning, or event reconstruction. As part of a program to better understand occupant movement and behavior during building emergencies, the Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been collecting stair movement<br/><br>
data during fire drill evacuations of office and residential buildings. These data collections are intended to provide a better understanding of this principal building egress feature and develop a<br/><br>
technical foundation for future codes and standards requirements. NIST has collected fire drill evacuation data in 14 buildings (11 office buildings and 3 residential buildings) ranging from six to 62 stories in height that have included a range<br/><br>
of stair widths and occupant densities. A total of more than 22000 individual measurements are included in the data set.<br/><br>
This report provides details of the<br/><br>
data collected, an analysis of the data, and examples of the use of the data. The intention is to better understand movement during stair evacuations and provide<br/><br>
data to test the predictive capability of building egress models.<br/><br>
While mean movement speeds in the current<br/><br>
study of 0.44 m/s ± 0.19 m/s are observed to be quite similar to the range of values in previous studies, mean local movement speeds as occupants traverse down the stairs are seen to vary widely within a given stair, ranging from 0.10 m/s ± 0.008 m/s to 1.7 m/s ± 0.13 m/s. These data<br/><br>
provide confirmation of the adequacy of<br/><br>
existing literature values typically used for occupant movement speeds and provide updated data for use in egress modeling or other engineering calculations.}},
  author       = {{Kuligowski, Erica D. and Peacock, Richard D. and Reneke, Paul A. and Weiss, Emily and Hagwood, Charles R. and Overholt, Kristopher J. and Elkin, Rena P. and Averill, Jason D. and Ronchi, Enrico and Hoskins, Bryan L. and Spearpoint, Michael}},
  institution  = {{National Institute of Standards and Technology}},
  keywords     = {{Disabled; egress; egress modeling; evacuation; fire safety; human behavior; mobility impairments}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1839}},
  series       = {{Technical Note}},
  title        = {{Movement on Stairs During Building Evacuations}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1839}},
  doi          = {{10.6028/NIST.TN.1839}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}