FUNDAMENTAL STUDY OF AN ADAPTIVE EVACUATION GUIDE SIGN BY USING A DISCRETE ELEMENT METHOD-BASED SIMULATION

Abstract

In this study, an adaptive evacuation guide sign is proposed, and a fundamental evaluation is performed by using a discrete element method (DEM)-based simulation. When a disaster occurs in a large, closed space that has many emergency exits, such as a building or an underground area, having an evacuation route guide to an emergency exit that avoids intensive congestion of evacuees is important. The adaptive evacuation guide sign monitors the situations of the disaster and the evacuation which changes frequently and controls the direction of evacuation. A simulation model is constructed by using a DEM-based simulation which introduces pseudo-spring and pseudo-radius to interactions among discrete elements for representing evacuees’ behaviour. The pseudo-spring and the pseudo-radius are representing the personal space of evacuees and they affect interaction among evacuees during evacuation. At a fundamental evaluation, a limited area that has six emergency exits with three adaptive evacuation guide signs is modelled for evaluating efficiency of the guide sign.