2007

Hostikka, Simo; Korhonen, Timo; Paloposki, Tuomas; Rinne, Tuomo; Matikainen, Katri; Heliövaara, Simo

A new evacuation simulation tool has been developed with three main features: i) The tool can be used to simulate large and high density crowds, where the movement dynamics is affected by the crowd pressure. ii) The interaction between the evacuees and fire can be taken into account. iii) The decision making processes of the evacuees are modelled taking into account the socio-psychological aspects like the importance of familiar people (group dynamics) and places. The simulation tool has been implemented to the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) software, and called FDS+Evac. In the experimental part, two different types of evacuation situations were studied. The first type was evacuation drills which are normally carried out as part of the safety training of the staff in public buildings and workplaces. The second type was actual evacuations which occur every now and then. The advantage of actual evacuations is that the decision making processes are likely to be similar to what they would be in case of a real fire. The main techniques used for the observation of evacuation drills were video cameras and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). A large amount of information was obtained and the problems in the application of the observation techniques were identified. In the observation of an actual evacuation of a large shopping centre, the recordings of the surveillance cameras were used to measure the flow rates of people. The results are very promising and indicate that the collection of surveillance camera recordings from large evacuations should be started.