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1 – 10 of 145Jingqi Zhang, Shaohua Jiang and Xiaomin Qi
The purpose of this paper is to conduct a comprehensive study on building, fire and evacuation, so as to effectively improve the efficiency of building fire evacuation and the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to conduct a comprehensive study on building, fire and evacuation, so as to effectively improve the efficiency of building fire evacuation and the management level of fire evacuation site. Make up for the difficulties of BIM technology in effectively connecting building information and fire data.
Design/methodology/approach
First, this paper establishes a fire model and an evacuation model based on BIM information. Then, the safety index (SI) is introduced as a comprehensive index, and the IRI is established by integrating the SI function to evaluate the safety of evacuation routes. Based on these two indices, the IRI-based fire evacuation model is established.
Findings
This study offers an Improved Risk Index (IRI)-based fire evacuation model, which may achieve effective evacuation in fire scenes. And the model is verified by taking the fire evacuation of a shopping center building as an example.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a fire evacuation principle based on IRI, so that the relevant personnel can comprehensively consider the fire factors and evacuation factors to achieve the optimization of building design, thereby improving the fire safety of buildings.
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Caleb Michealangelo Gian, Mohd Zahirasri Mohd Tohir, Mohamad Syazarudin Md Said, Ahmad Faiz Tharima, Nur Aliah Fatin Mohd Nizam Ong and Mohd Rashid Ramali
In recent years, the number of high-rise buildings in Malaysia has been increasing. Therefore, it is essential to take evacuation into consideration especially for emergency…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent years, the number of high-rise buildings in Malaysia has been increasing. Therefore, it is essential to take evacuation into consideration especially for emergency conditions such as fire, explosion and natural disasters. This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the escape time in typical Malaysian high-rise residential buildings.
Design/methodology/approach
This work comprises simulation on three buildings around the Selangor area in Malaysia. Quantitative methodology is adopted using Pathfinder software to simulate the evacuation process and time of the three typical Malaysian high-rise residential buildings. Four parameters were studied namely, the occupant load density, walking speed of first and last occupants, average of evacuation time per floor for the three buildings and effect of placement of emergency staircase on travel time.
Findings
Findings show that 12 m2 which is double the allowable occupants' density in Malaysia increases evacuation time by 67.9% while the placement of the emergency staircase on the left and middle section of a building significantly affects the evacuation time by 21.2%. In conclusion, from the simulation studies, it is recognized that a higher occupant's density affects the evacuation time.
Originality/value
This work could provide information on escape time for future construction of high-rise buildings in Malaysia. Hence, the specification and design of buildings could be reviewed based on the results obtained from this simulation. This information could be beneficial to the building regulators and developers thus enhancing the knowledge of building constructor and possible issues in the design of staircases, corridors and height of buildings.
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Xiaobo Shi, Yaning Qiao, Xinyu Zhao, Yan Liu, Chenchen Liu, Ruopeng Huang and Yuanlong Cui
Modern subway transportation systems need to satisfy increasing safety demands to rapidly evacuate passengers under hazardous emergency circumstances, such as fires, accidents or…
Abstract
Purpose
Modern subway transportation systems need to satisfy increasing safety demands to rapidly evacuate passengers under hazardous emergency circumstances, such as fires, accidents or terrorist attacks, to reduce passenger injuries or life losses. The emergency evacuation capacity (EEC) of a subway station needs to be revised timely, in case passenger demand increases or the evacuation route changes in the future. However, traditional ways of estimating EEC, e.g. fire drills are time- and resource-consuming and are difficult to revise from time to time. The purpose of this study is to establish an intuitive modelling approach to increase the EEC of subway stations in a stepwised manner.
Design/methodology/approach
This study develops an approach to combine agent-based evacuation modelling and building information modelling (BIM) technology to estimate the total evacuation time of a subway station.
Findings
Evacuation time can be saved (33% in the studied case) from iterative improvements including stopping escalators running against the evacuation flow and modifying the geometry around escalator exits. Such iterative improvements rely on integrating agent-based modelling and BIM.
Originality/value
The agent-based model can provide a more realistic simulation of intelligent individual movements under emergency circumstances and provides precise feedback on locations of evacuation bottlenecks. This study also examined the effectiveness of two rounds of stepwise improvements in terms of operation or design to increase the EEC of the station.
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Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the crowd stampede risk mechanism from the perspective of systems thinking.
Design/methodology/approach
Causal loop diagram is drawn to outline the non-linear interactions among complex factors across the whole system and dissect the contributory factors of crowd stampede accident. To systematically construct the theoretical framework and find fundamental solutions, co-word analysis with Citespace is used to get the critical data. An agent-based simulation using Pathfinder is conducted to develop a spatial model for the Shanghai Stampede Accident that happened in 2014.
Findings
The causal loop diagram is formed to not only illustrate the symptomatic solutions with a quick fix but also dissect the fundamental solutions through an underlying systemic analysis. The simulation shows that crowd stampede experiences an interactive process of accumulation, trigger, delay, break and diffusion of risk factors within the crowd system. A linkage effect among the multidimensional characters of individuals and the system accelerates the stampede risk deterioration. There exists delay of the result of effect from the deep-level measure.
Practical implications
A top-down approach is offered to policymakers for crowd stampede risk protocol design and synergic emergency control that may reduce the risk of the stampede.
Originality/value
In this study, SDFT paradigm is proposed as the critical solution for the crowd stampede accident. In addition, a chain effect of energy and a linkage effect within the crowd system is illustrated for in-depth understanding of crowd stampede risk.
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Meysam Soltaninejad, Esmatullah Noorzai and Amir Faraji
This research aims to provide optimization and route safety planning employing the fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) technique.
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to provide optimization and route safety planning employing the fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) technique.
Design/methodology/approach
This research combines the use of graphical, communication tools and simulated models based on building information modeling (BIM) technology and agent-based modeling (ABM) to identify a safe evacuation route. Adopting the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach, the proposed rescue plan can reduce potential hazards along the evacuation route by selecting a safe route for evacuating residents and entering firefighters to the scene of the incident.
Findings
The results show that the use of simulated models along with MCDM methods in the selection of safe routes improves the performance of safe evacuation operations for both relief groups and residents.
Practical implications
The introduced model can improve the performance management of different groups at the time of the incident and reduce casualties and property losses using the information received from sensors at the scene. Moreover, the proposed rescue plan prevents group and individual reactivation at the time of the incident.
Originality/value
Despite many advances in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, the number of victims of fire incidents in buildings is increasing compared to other natural disasters. Improving decision management based on effective parameters at the time of incident reduces casualties of residents and rescue workers.
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Kefan Xie, Zimei Liu, Liuliu Fu and Benbu Liang
The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework of applying the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to the intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries at…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework of applying the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to the intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries at emergency situations.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted field investigations on eight libraries in Wuhan, China, analyzed the characteristics of crowd gathering in libraries and the problems of the libraries’ existing evacuation plans. Therefore, an IoT-based intelligent evacuation protocol in libraries was proposed. Its basic structure consisted of five components: the information base, the protocol base, the IoT sensors, the information fusion system and the intelligent evacuation protocol generation system. In the information fusion system, Dempster–Shafer (D-S) evidence theory was employed as the information fusion algorithm to fuse the multi-sensor information at multiple time points, so as to reduce the uncertainty of disaster prediction. The authors also conducted a case study on the Library L in Wuhan, China. A specific evacuation route was generated for a fire and the crowd evacuation was simulated by the software Patherfind.
Findings
The proposed IoT-based evacuation protocol has four distinguishing features: scenario corresponding, precise evacuation, dynamic correction and intelligent decision-making. The case study shows that the proposed protocol is feasible in practice, indicating that the IoT technologies have great potential to be successfully applied to the safety management in libraries.
Research limitations/implications
The software and hardware requirements as well as the Internet network requirements of IoT technologies need to be further discussed.
Practical implications
The proposed IoT-based intelligent evacuation protocol can be widely used in libraries, which is one of the inspirations for the use of IoT technologies in modern constructers.
Originality/value
The application of IoT technologies in libraries is a brand-new topic that has drawn much attention in academia recently. The crowd safety management in libraries is of great significance, and there is little professional literature on it. This paper proposes an IoT-based intelligent evacuation protocol, aiming at improving the safety management in libraries at emergency situations.
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This article reviews the Campus of the Future meeting held in Honolulu, Hawaii in July 2006.
Abstract
Purpose
This article reviews the Campus of the Future meeting held in Honolulu, Hawaii in July 2006.
Design/methodology/approach
Provides a review of some of the events of the conference.
Findings
This conference was attended by university administrations interested in facilities planning and business affairs with a focus on forecasting developments in the future of higher education over the next ten to 20 years
Originality/value
A conference report of interest to information management professionals, especially those involved with facilities planning and business affairs
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Jian-Ping Wang, Mei-Ru Wang, Jian-Lan Zhou, Qing-Jun Zuo and Xun-Xian Shi
The purpose of this study is to develop optimal evacuation plan to provide valuable theoretical and practical insight in the fire evacuation work of similar structures, by…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop optimal evacuation plan to provide valuable theoretical and practical insight in the fire evacuation work of similar structures, by proposing a systematic simulation-based guided-evacuation agent-based model (GAM) and a three-stage mathematical evacuation model to investigate how to simulate, assess and improve the performance efficiency of the evacuation plan.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors first present the self-evacuation and guided-evacuation models to determine the optimal evacuation plan in ship chamber. Three key performance indicators are put forward to quantitatively assess the evacuation performance within the two fire scenarios. The evacuation model in tower is built to obtain the dividing points of the three different fire evacuation plans.
Findings
The study shows that the optimal evacuation plan determined by the GAM considering social relationships effectively relieves the congestion or collision of evacuees and improves the evacuation uniformity. The optimal evacuation plan not only solves the crush caused by congestion or collision of evacuees but also can greatly shorten the evacuation time for passenger ship fire.
Originality/value
This study establishes the GAM considering the interactive evacuee characteristics and the proportion of evacuees guided by the crew members to make the optimal evacuation plan more time-efficient. The self-evacuation process is simulated to assess the performance of the guided-evacuation strategies, which are used to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the optimal evacuation plan in this research.
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Abdullah Ehtesham Akbar and Mohammad A. Hassanain
This paper aims to present a systematic review of the published literature on building information model (BIM)-based simulation tools used for occupant evacuation over the past…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a systematic review of the published literature on building information model (BIM)-based simulation tools used for occupant evacuation over the past 23 years.
Design/methodology/approach
A literature review was conducted on BIM-based simulation tools used for occupant evacuation over the past 23 years. The search identified a total of 37 relevant papers, which were reviewed. The paper describes the use of BIM-based simulation tools over the years and identifies the research gaps.
Findings
BIM-based simulation tools have undergone progressive development, with constant improvements through the integration of advanced tools and collection of more data. These tools can assist in identifying faults in the building design. The outcomes of the simulation were not entirely accurate, as real-life scenarios vary depending on the various building types and the behavior of their occupants.
Research limitations/implications
This study contributes to the literature through reviewing the capabilities of BIM-based simulation tools and the different simulation methods along with their limitations.
Practical implications
Fire safety engineers and architects can comprehend the utilization of BIM-based simulation tools to enhance the fire evacuation in light of their shortcomings and flaws.
Originality/value
BIM-based simulation tools are becoming more advanced and widely used. There has not been a comprehensive evaluation of the capabilities of the integration of BIM tools and simulation modeling for occupant evacuation. This study guides researchers on the capabilities and efficiencies of integrated solutions for occupant evacuations and their inherent shortcomings. The study identifies future research areas in BIM-based tools for occupant evacuation.
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Douglas J. Gillan and Nancy J. Cooke
Research on human cognition in complex tasks, such as interacting with advanced technology, requires the development and validation of new methods. This paper describes PRONET, a…
Abstract
Research on human cognition in complex tasks, such as interacting with advanced technology, requires the development and validation of new methods. This paper describes PRONET, a method for summarizing, representing, and analyzing event sequences. The first section outlines how the PRONET method can be applied to any sequence of events, with lessons learned from previous applications of the method. The second section presents demonstrations of the application of PRONET. In the first demonstration — a computer-based simulation of operant training - the PRONET analysis and representation clearly shows the change in the behavior of the simulation produced by changes in reinforcement contingencies, but also shows interesting aspects of behavior that were not affected. In the second demonstration — involving transfer of word processing skill — network-related and performance measures showed the expected pattern of positive transfer. In addition, the network of the far transfer participant suggested that she used task knowledge to search for conditions that would permit the correct action. Two previously-published examples showed the usefulness of the PRONET method in characterizing a hybrid event sequence consisting of environmental conditions and behavioral actions and a sequence of events from a team.