Evacuation Simulation Focusing on Modeling of Disabled People Movement

Abstract

All building users should have the right to safe evacuation. However, evacuation becomes a big challenge when it concerns people with disabilities. Nowadays, computer programs are used to plan escape routes. Therefore, the manuscript deals with the issues of modeling evacuation with particular emphasis on people with disabilities. A review of different evacuation modeling software is presented. The research is performed mainly to see what the limitations of different programs are and how they regard occupants with disabilities. The analyses contain a study of six cases of the evacuation from a building. In this study the three following programs—SIMULEX, STEPS and Pathfinder—are considered. Different populations of people with mobility impairments are modeled. The comparison of the methodology when using these three programs is presented in the following sections. Research has shown that despite the same input data, the results obtained with the three programs differ significantly. In the case of the total evacuation time, the differences reach up to 8%.