Safety assessment of a high-rise dormitory in case of fire

Authored by Anass Rahouti, Selim Datoussaid, Thierry Descamps

Date Published: 2018

DOI: 10.1108/ijdrbe-10-2016-0039

Sponsors: No sponsors listed

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

Purpose - This paper aims to focus on the combination of fire- and agent-based modelling approaches to assess the level of safety of a multi-storeyed building case study.\& para;\& para;Design/methodology/approach - For an existing building to be occupied such as the engineering student dormitory of Mom (Belgium), engineers must establish, among the other things, that the building affords a sufficient level of safety during fire incident. This can be verified in accordance with prescriptive and performance-based methodologies. The performance-based approach consists on using simulation tools such as fire dynamics simulator with evacuation to ensure/verify the level of safety required. In this paper. a model case study was built and then various scenarios have been implemented to answer some safety questions.\& para;\& para;Findings - For this building layout, the results demonstrate that combining different egress components (i.e. stairs and outdoor ladders) has a negative impact on the evacuation process than using only the stairs to evacuate the building phased evacuation strategy will not necessarily lead to faster evacuation; adding fire doors in the stairs and between the floors has a beneficial effect on the evacuation process.\& para;\& para;Originality/value - This case study proposes some recommendations about adapted evacuation strategy and investments to improve the safety of high-rise student's dormitory in case of fire.

Tags

Agent-based modelling Evacuation risk management Fire Safety High-rise dormitory