Emergency egress for the elderly in care home fire situations

Practitioners are continuing to develop egress modelling software for the design of the built environment. These models require data about human behaviour and factors for calibration, validation and verification. This study aims to address the specific data and knowledge gap: emergency egress of the elderly. Such data are difficult to collect given privacy and consent concerns, with strong relationships generally being required between residences and researchers. Through the observation of nine fire drills at six Canadian long-term care (LTC) and retirement homes, specific evacuation actions and behaviour were observed for 37 staff members and information about the evacuation of 56 residents was collected. These drills demonstrated that emergency egress in LTC and retirement homes is highly staff dependent with 72% of residents recorded requiring full assistance at all stages of movement in evacuation, and that the type of announced/unannounced drill and level of resident care will affect the type of data collected. The development of travel speed and pre-movement is discussed subject to limitation with qualitative behavioural insights of residents that were observed. This study provides valuable methodological discussion on how to conduct behavioural studies in similar highly restricted research environments. Specific attention is given to understanding the considerations that must be made when using fire drills as data sources, and the impact that these can have on using such data for modelling. This study may inform the initial setup and programming of evacuation models from an actions and behavioural perspectives of staff members and residents.     

Engineering egress data considering pedestrians with reduced mobility

To quantify the evacuation process, evacuation practitioners use engineering egress data describing the occupant movement characteristics. These data are typically based to young and fit populations. However, the movement abilities of occupants who might be involved in evacuations are becoming more variable—with the building populations of today typically including increasing numbers of individuals: with impairments or who are otherwise elderly or generally less mobile. Thus, there will be an increasing proportion of building occupants with reduced ability to egress. For safe evacuation, there is therefore a need to provide valid engineering egress data considering pedestrians with disabilities. Gwynne and Boyce recently compiled a series of data sets related to the evacuation process to support practitioner activities in the chapter Engineering Data in the SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering. This paper supplements these data sets by providing information on and presenting data obtained from additional research related to the premovement and horizontal movement of participants with physical‐, cognitive‐, or age‐related disabilities. The aim is to provide an overview of currently available data sets related to, and key factors affecting the egress performance of, mixed ability populations which could be used to guide fire safety engineering decisions in the context of building design.     

Application of Code Approach for Emergency Evacuation in a Rail Station

This paper presents an emergency evacuation analysis during a mid-platform train fire in an underground rail station. A time-based evacuation scenario is developed taking into account the stairway inaccessibility due to smoke blockage. The calculation approach in NFPA 130 is then applied to a parametric study of this time-based scenario and its reliability is examined using a micro-simulation model. Both methods give consistent predictions of the exiting times. The results demonstrate that with the division of the station into two zones, the exiting time could not meet the code requirements, whereas it does meet the required exiting time without the division. Such division is due to smoke blockage and creates an uneven ratio of the occupant load to the available exiting capacity. This shows that appropriate consideration of the fire and smoke effects is important for station egress evaluation. Other issues such as the fire growth rate and the pre-evacuation time are also discussed.     

某商品大集人员疏散的仿真模拟研究

目前,在各地均有商贸活动开展,且参与人员众多,如果公安机关事先未做好预案,一旦发生突发性事件,人员疏散不到位,极易造成群死群伤事件。文章以商品大集为例,构建参与人员的流动模型,利用计算机技术实现流量和流动状况的模拟仿真,获得接近实际的流动的时间和动态过程．利于事先对类似活动拥堵情况进行准确评估。     

基于多速度元胞自动机的海洋平台人员疏散

为了研究海洋平台人员疏散过程,定量评估疏散方案的合理性,基于元胞自动机模型开发适用于海洋平台人员逃生疏散的仿真系统,提出在离散模型中精确考虑多种人员速度的方法. 使用真实海洋平台疏散实验数据校核模型参数,并对比商业软件maritimeEXODUS的计算结果,验证仿真系统的可行性. 从疏散时间和出口使用效率对无烟和有烟场景下的人员疏散结果进行对比和量化分析,并提出优化方案. 结果表明：有烟环境不仅折减人员移动速度,延长疏散时间,更会影响人员的路径选择,导致疏散不平衡.     

前向树状紧急疏散网络的自适应性控制策略分析

针对前向树状的紧急疏散网络,提出了一种不需要进行需求预测且具有适应性和强鲁棒性的分散式控制疏散策略.通过分析如何确定典型匝道与快速路交汇点处的最优疏散路线,明确了构建可控疏散网络的基本原则.定义了前向树状紧急疏散网络,并对所构建网络的适用范围和具体风险水平标定处理作了明确说明.针对前向树状网络的典型子结构,给出了可以始终充分利用下游通行能力,且充分考虑上游来流具有较高风险水平特点的具体疏散路线选择及放流策略.在上述典型子结构分析基础上,给出了包括如何逆流向确定路段限制性通行能力、顺流向确定路段最大可行流量以及实时动态调整疏散策略等基本步骤的网络疏散策略.最后,通过一个数值算例,比较了新策略与纯粹上游优先策略、纯粹下游优先策略的运行效率,证明了新的适应控制策略的可行性与有效性.     

高铁车厢内部紧急情况下人员疏散仿真研究

在引入元胞自动机理论的基础上,模拟分析了紧急情况下人员生理及心理的不同对疏散过程的影响,通过人员动态调整自身行为,并引入人员竞争力,对人员疏散过程建立模型。在疏散过程中,根据存在着一定程度的外部干扰因素,提出疏散干扰度概念。计算机仿真的结果表明,考虑人员竞争力,以及出口疏散干扰的问题,可以更加真实地模拟人员紧急疏散过程和疏散状况。     

船舶多出口房间疏散问题研究

为了提高船舶人员疏散效率,针对船舶火灾情况下多出口房间的人员疏散,提出了结合博弈论和社会力模型的疏散优化模型.模型考虑了人员之间的相互作用、人员到出口的距离和出口大小对人员选择出口的影响,用博弈理论得出多出口条件下人员个体的最优决策路线,并对社会力模型中人员动力学进行修正,作为新模型中人员运动的动力学基础.用新模型对多出口无障碍房间进行人员疏散仿真,结果显示,上述模型可以仿真出人员在多出口房间中对出口的优化选择,并能改善基础社会力模型中存在的不足.仿真结果表明,上述模型能有效缩短人员逃离房间的时间,并能模拟多出口条件下人员疏散的场景,为规划和管理多出口房间的疏散提供参考.     

双向蚁群算法的智能消防疏散图路径规划

当前我国正处在城市发展高速时期,综合建筑不断涌现,这时可根据火灾实时信息自动调整疏散路径的智能消防疏散图应运而生。路径规划算法是智能消防疏散图的重点研究方向之一。针对智能消防疏散图需结合火场信息动态规划路径等问题,提出了一种改进双向蚁群算法。添加了双向搜索策略,提高了算法全局搜索能力;结合A*算法改进了初始信息素分布,减小了算法初期搜索盲目性;改进了信息素更新策略,提高了算法收敛速度;结合火场信息和转向惩罚系数对算法蒸发系数、启发函数和转移概率进行改进,降低了陷入局部最优风险,提高了算法搜索效率和路径平滑性,并有效避开了火灾影响区域。通过仿真验证了算法有效性。     

基于元胞自动机的交通枢纽内人群疏散效率研究

利用元胞自动机仿真不同出口位置和不同内部布局下交通枢纽内人员的疏散情况,通过制定合适的人员行走规则,对交通枢纽内人员疏散进行仿真分析。结果表明,正面中央开口时人员的疏散效率最高,此时由于人员相对于出口大概呈对称分布,人员对过道的利用率达到最高;和正面边缘开口相比,出口位置设置在侧面更好,以减少行人在行走过程中方向的变化从而减少疏散时间。当在侧面开口时,在靠近出口墙壁处设置过道可以提高人群的疏散效率,并且适当地增加过道数目,可以对疏散人群起到分流的作用,从而对人群的疏散也很有利。