Simulating individual, group, and crowd behaviors in building egress.
Studies of past emergency events have revealed that occupants‚¬„ behaviors, local geometry, and environmental constraints affect crowd movement and evacuation. Design of egress systems should take into consideration the social characteristics of the occupants and the unique layout of the buildings. This paper describes an agent-based egress simulation tool, SAFEgress, which is designed to incorporate human and social behaviors during evacuations. The unique feature of SAFEgress is its flexibility to model different individual, group, and crowd behavior. Simulations are conducted to examine egress performance of a museum floor plan for three scenarios: (1) expected occupancy load during peak hours; (2) group behaviors among museum visitors; and (3) measures to reduce pre-evacuation delay. By assuming different occupants‚ behaviors in the simulations, engineers, designers, and facility managers can study the important human and social factors on an egress situation and, thereby, improve the design of safe egress systems and procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]/nCopyright of Simulation is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Data analyzed with the developed simulation tool.
Simulation development and testing
Average delay timeTotal evacuation timeExit usage
Simulation development safegress
Simulations are conducted to examine egress performance of a museum floor plan for three scenarios: (1) expected occupancy load during peak hours; (2) group behaviors among museum visitors; and (3) measures to reduce pre-evacuation delay.Based on the building layout of a museum shown in Figure 20, we conduct a series of tests to analyze the effects of group behaviors and delay times on the egress performance of the museum
we aim to (1) demonstrate the SAFEgress framework to systemically model different individual and social behaviors and (2) highlight the effects of these behaviors on egress performance.
To realistically predict the building egress performance, designers and managers of the building need to consider not only the building geometry but also the building occupants.Simulating emergency evacuations is a complicated and challenging task.
Simulation results from our case studies indicate that occupants’ social behavior and initial delay to evacuate can lead to very different congestion patterns and evacuation times. This kind of analysis can be useful in many applications, for example, architects can design occupant-centric floor layouts and ensure that the egress design can handle a wide range of occupant behaviors. The simulation results can also help design and placement of signage to guide evacuation. Such analysis can be useful for facility management to plan evacuation strategies and design emergency training programs.
This paper describes an agent-based egress simulation tool, SAFEgress, which is designed to incorporate human and social behaviors during evacuations. The unique feature of SAFEgress is its flexibility to model different individual, group, and crowd behavior.
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