A refined simulation method of building earthquake evacuation processes considering multi-exits and time-variant velocities

This study proposes a refined method for effectively simulating the evacuation processes of multi-story buildings during earthquakes. The method is developed by combining the exit-option algorithm and multi-velocity field model with the previously developed probabilistic network-based floor-field cellular automaton (PN-FFCA) model. Besides, the formula is also proposed for calculating the time-variant moving velocities of evacuees in the buildings subjected to the earthquake loads. Consequently, the refined method can fully consider the effect of multi-exits and time-variant velocities on the random evacuation processes of multi-story buildings during earthquakes. The recorded evacuation process of a school classroom during the 2022 Luding earthquake in China is reproduced using the refined method, which verifies its validity. In addition, the evacuation processes of an actual three-story office building subjected to random earthquake loads are simulated using the refined method. The simulated results are compared with those obtained from the PN-FFCA to demonstrate the advantages and utility of the refined method.