1. |
|
|
2. |
- Forssberg, Martin, et al.
(author)
-
Evacuation through inward opening doors : Literature study and evacuation experiments
- 2023
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Evacuation through inward opening doors can present challenges for safe egress during fire incidents. This study comprehensively investigates the dynamics and challenges associated with this type of evacuation, aiming to provide valuable insights for fire safety design. A literature review and experimental evacuation experiments were conducted. The experiments compare occupant movement towards and through inward opening doors with outward opening doors. Crucial parameters such as occupant density, door opening force, presence of a corridor (flow construction) and walking distance, were examined.The findings highlight that evacuating through inward opening doors is slower during the initial stage of egress due to the increased interactions required between evacuees. Further, high occupant densities near the door can obstruct door opening, emphasizing the importance of managing occupant density. The presence of a corridor, or other flow congestion in front of the door slightly reduces people flow. In contrast, it promotes organized group formation, facilitating door opening. Increased walking distance to the door reduces occupant density for people reaching the door first, easing the door opening process. The number of people evacuating through the door does not significantly impact door opening, supporting the importance of managing occupant density instead. The study concludes that key parameters when safeguarding evacuation through inward opening doors include appropriate door fittings, low occupant density near the door, and fast door opening maneuvers, even for larger numbers of people.
|
|
3. |
- Forssberg, Martin, et al.
(author)
-
The Variation of Pre-movement Time in Building Evacuation
- 2019
-
In: Fire Technology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0015-2684 .- 1572-8099. ; 55:6, s. 2491-2513
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In order to provide a reliable evacuation design assessment, data showing the variation in pre-movement time is of vital importance. The pre-movement time is in many cases regarded as the main time period during an evacuation assessment. Therefore, forty unannounced evacuation experiments for six different occupancies were analysed to quantify pre-movement time during building evacuation, i.e., the time taken between receiving the first cue and initiation of movement towards an exit during evacuation. The occupancies were office, cinema theatres, restaurants, department stores and night clubs. The occupancies were equipped with different types of evacuation alarm systems. The study resulted in 2486 data points for the pre-movement time. The pre-movement times were matched to statistical distributions to describe the variation. It was found that the pre-movement times in most cases could be represented with a lognormal or loglogistic distribution typically having a rapid initial increase representing the phase when people start reacting, which is followed by a less steep decrease representing the phase when some people linger before evacuating. Most reliable data are provided for the cinema theatre experiments which included 1954 data points from 30 experiments. The paper also presents a structure for performing an assessment of video recorded evacuation experiment determining actions, relevant time data and fitting a statistical distribution to the data. The new information provided in the paper can help fire safety professionals to more accurately predict the time to evacuate different premises.
|
|