Evacuation time from buildings
เวลาที่ใช้ในการอพยพคนออกจากอาคาร
Niwat Sirikul, Rajamangala Institute of Technology, Songkhla
Chakkrit Kanok-Kantapong, Assoc. Prof., D. of Civil Eng., F. of Eng., PSU.
Grant : Graduate School, PSU.
Presented : The 5th National Convention on Civil Engineering, 24-26 March 2000,
Ambassador City Jomtian, Bangkok
Key words : evacuate time, buildings, greenshield, traffic flow
Time to evacuate from fire in high-rise or large buildings is the time required to move occu-
pants from the buildings before the reach of the fire. Therefore, the time calculated in the process of leaving the occupied position, moving along the escape corridor to the escape stair, and safety out of the building should be less than the time used by the fire and the smoke to spread to the whole build-
ing.
This paper investigates the total evacuation time along the corridor, through the door, and down the stairs. The experiment was conducted 20 times in 20 days using 140 fourth-year students from Rajamangala Institute of Technology, Southern Campus by measuring the escape time from three buildings with 2, 3, 4 storeys height each. The outcomes on the flow rate per one metre width of
escape route are 1.37 persons per second along the corridor, 1.1 persons per second through the fire door, and 1.05 persons per second down the stairs. The total time used to evacuate from 2, 3, and 4
storey building are 2.02, 4.14 and 4.62 minutes, respectively. These values fall near the calculated
ones from the equations by Melinek & Pauls.
The evacuate time is also governed by the type of fuel causing the fire and the warning time of various alarm equipments. In this paper, the liquid petroleum gas (LPG) fire is selected because LPG is commonly used in most buildings, and it is the typical type of fires elapsed.
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