Simulation of Evacuation Behaviour During a Disaster for Classes Building of Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University by Using DEM

Abstract

Safety is a primary consideration in any building. There are many risk factors which can cause casualties such as earthquake, fire, flood, terrorism, etc. One of the important considerations in an emergency situation is evacuation of people. This is of great importance when a large number of people are or gathered together in a confined space such as mosques, subway stations, shopping malls, etc. To predict the evacuation of a place, an effective way is to simulate evacuation behavior. In this paper as a study case, we simulated the evacuation behavior of the Classes Building of Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University by using distinct element method (DEM). In DEM, analysis can compute the position of each element (person) step by step by solving the equation of motion. Human body is modeled as a circular element. Contact force acts on human body through virtual spring and virtual dashpot. Algorithm that can consider avoidance, overtaking, and pass between elements naturally, is used. The parameters used for human body are based on experiments done by Professor Kiyono at Kyoto University. Different cases are considered and evacuation behavior, evacuation time, and density on exits are estimated quantitatively and obtained results are discussed. As results show, number of exits and people have great influences on evacuation behavior.