Fire Protection Engineering
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2241
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Item INCREASED INDIVIDUAL SIZE AND ITS POTENTIAL EFFECTS ON EMERGENCY EVACUATION SCENARIOS(2018) Ahrens, Katherine; Milke, James; Fire Protection Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The increase in human body size due to obesity and overweight conditions is recognized as becoming more prevalent throughout the world. The effect which increased body size and weight has on movement has been examined from a kinesiological and physiological standpoint. Its effect on egress during emergency evacuation has largely remained unstudied. This study reviews current data on body size using modeling software to examine the potential impact an increase in body size has on evacuation times and whether that impact is significant enough to warrant potential changes to current code and regulatory requirements. The change in body size distribution is analyzed and tests are conducted at increasing body size intervals of 0.025 meters for six different scenarios. Results indicate that an increase of 0.225 meters to a body radius increases evacuation times in simple scenarios between 12% and 72%.Item OBSERVED BEHAVIOR OF PLATOON DYNAMICS DURING HIGH-RISE STAIRWELL EVACUATIONS(2012) Baker, Matthew Daniel; Milke, James A; Fire Protection Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This research analyzes the phenomena of grouping or platooning during the evacuation of seven stairwells within four different high-rise buildings. The purpose of this research is to investigate the changes occurring to platoons as they descend the stairs in order to incorporate the results into computer egress models. Platoons are found to travel in three distinct patterns: elongation, compression, and equilibrium. Also, platoons are found to remain unchanged, add new occupants, merge with other platoons, or fragment during their descent within a stairwell. The results demonstrate that a trend exists between patterns of platoon elongation leading to fragmentation and platoon compression leading to platoons merging. The majority of the platoons identified are found to consist of one person and remain unchanged as they descend between floors. Finally, a qualitative comparison between the platoons analyzed and the platoons identified in the behavioral computer egress model Pathfinder, is presented.