Occupant loads and COVID-19: The impact on office building fire evacuation
(2022) In LUTVDG/TVBB VBRM10 20202Division of Fire Safety Engineering
- Abstract
- COVID-19 was declared a world-wide pandemic in 2020, consequently affecting societies all around the globe. This thesis investigates one of these effects, namely how the pandemic affected occupant loads in office buildings and its subsequent effect on fire evacuation. Occupant load is one of many important factors when designing a building in regard to its fire safety, as it is a key component in determining and applying building regulations. By analysing data collected from video recordings of three different offices as well as performing a case study in which different occupant load levels and physical distancing were combined to determine evacuation time, the objectives of this thesis were accomplished. The results included, but were... (More)
- COVID-19 was declared a world-wide pandemic in 2020, consequently affecting societies all around the globe. This thesis investigates one of these effects, namely how the pandemic affected occupant loads in office buildings and its subsequent effect on fire evacuation. Occupant load is one of many important factors when designing a building in regard to its fire safety, as it is a key component in determining and applying building regulations. By analysing data collected from video recordings of three different offices as well as performing a case study in which different occupant load levels and physical distancing were combined to determine evacuation time, the objectives of this thesis were accomplished. The results included, but were not limited to, that the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic affected occupant load levels to varying degrees, which combined with the common restriction of physical distancing proved to cause significant increases in modelled evacuation time. Due to the lack of research, it was difficult to determine whether this increase in time reflects real life fire evacuation scenarios during a pandemic or not. If this reflection was to be accurate, it would indicate an increased risk for occupants of office buildings during a pandemic similar to the one caused by COVID-19 in regard to fire safety. To counterbalance the increase in risk, potential changes in building codes might be appropriate, but in order to confirm this further research is strongly recommended. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9102336
- author
- Larsson Silli, Malte LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- VBRM10 20202
- year
- 2022
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Occupant load, physical distancing, evacuation, COVID-19, office building
- publication/series
- LUTVDG/TVBB
- report number
- 5677
- other publication id
- LUTVDG/TVBB--5677--SE
- language
- English
- id
- 9102336
- date added to LUP
- 2022-10-27 10:03:49
- date last changed
- 2022-10-27 10:03:49
@misc{9102336, abstract = {{COVID-19 was declared a world-wide pandemic in 2020, consequently affecting societies all around the globe. This thesis investigates one of these effects, namely how the pandemic affected occupant loads in office buildings and its subsequent effect on fire evacuation. Occupant load is one of many important factors when designing a building in regard to its fire safety, as it is a key component in determining and applying building regulations. By analysing data collected from video recordings of three different offices as well as performing a case study in which different occupant load levels and physical distancing were combined to determine evacuation time, the objectives of this thesis were accomplished. The results included, but were not limited to, that the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic affected occupant load levels to varying degrees, which combined with the common restriction of physical distancing proved to cause significant increases in modelled evacuation time. Due to the lack of research, it was difficult to determine whether this increase in time reflects real life fire evacuation scenarios during a pandemic or not. If this reflection was to be accurate, it would indicate an increased risk for occupants of office buildings during a pandemic similar to the one caused by COVID-19 in regard to fire safety. To counterbalance the increase in risk, potential changes in building codes might be appropriate, but in order to confirm this further research is strongly recommended.}}, author = {{Larsson Silli, Malte}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, series = {{LUTVDG/TVBB}}, title = {{Occupant loads and COVID-19: The impact on office building fire evacuation}}, year = {{2022}}, }