Simulation of evacuation process in high-rise buildings and structures with using passenger elevators

Introduction. The number of multi-storey buildings and structures increases every year. Now there is an improving tendency of elderly people who remains be able to work even in old age. The issue of evacuation people with reduced mobility is especially acute. In high-rise buildings, evacuation paths are very long, which makes the evacuation process for these groups not only difficult and dangerous, but also physically impossible. At the same time, most problems with using elevators as the main evacuation path have been almost solved.
The article’s purpose is to simulate the evacuation process from a high-rise building with using elevators as one of the main path. Tasks: 1) determine the evacuation time dependence on the movement parameters of people different mobility groups; 2) compare the evacuation time on the staircase and through the elevators.
Methods. The Pathfinder PC was used to calculate the people evacuation from a modeled building. The evacuation time was calculated using both ladders exclusively and with partial use of vertical elevator units. The calculations were carried out taking into account the presence of the reduced mobility population group.
Results and discussion. The evacuation time was obtained using only the ladder and compared with the theoretical computation. The effect on evacuation time with time parameters (the evacuation start and signal delay), the flow composition (various mobility groups), and the evacuation base level for each group are calculated. The evacuation time is compared on the staircase and through elevators. Optimal percentage dependences of people, who use the first and second versions of evacuation, are obtained.
Conclusion. The requirements for fire elevators safety are as high as for non-smoke-free staircases. In 60-storey office buildings (in contrast to the 20-storey), the use of elevators and manage measures for the human flow significantly reduce the evacuation time. For high-rise buildings in the future, it is necessary to consider the organization of evacuation with the use of elevators.

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