On the importance of building evacuation system components

Author

Lovås, Gunnar G.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Math., Oslo Univ., Norway

Volume

45

Issue

2

fYear

1998

fDate

5/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

181

Lastpage

191

Abstract

How can building occupants be safely evacuated in the case of an emergency? To address this question, this paper presents several measures of the criticality of evacuation system components, inspired by reliability theory. The escapeways in a building are modeled as a network, with links and nodes. This paper discusses how it is possible to identify the importance of different network components. The evacuees are modeled as discrete flow objects with certain attributes. This paper discusses the importance of different personal attributes. Also, management decisions are important, e.g., establishing emergency plans and strategies

Keywords

disasters; management; reliability theory; safety; building escapeway modeling; building evacuation system components; building occupants evacuation; discrete flow objects; emergency plans; emergency strategies; evacuees; importance measure; management decisions; network components; optimal routing; personal attributes; queueing network; reliability theory; Accidents; Councils; Disaster management; Hazards; Mathematics; Reliability engineering; Reliability theory; Routing; Safety; Transportation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Engineering Management, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9391

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/17.669766

Filename

669766