This paper presents an overview of human factors data collected via an online survey related to t... more This paper presents an overview of human factors data collected via an online survey related to the use of lifts (elevators) and stairs during both circulation and evacuation scenarios. Survey participants were presented with a series of hypothetical situations and asked how they would behave. The survey was split into two broad sections, the first dealing with normal circulation usage of lifts/stairs and the second dealing with evacuation usage of lifts/stairs. Detailed demographic information about each participant was also collected. In total some 468 people from 23 countries completed the survey. An overview of the survey and initial results are presented in this paper.
In this paper results from an unannounced evacuation trial conducted within a library in Izmir Tu... more In this paper results from an unannounced evacuation trial conducted within a library in Izmir Turkey are presented and discussed. This experimental evacuation is part of a large international study investigating the impact of culture on evacuation behavior. In addition, a framework to enable the systematic analysis of Response Phase behaviors is presented and applied to the trial data. The framework not only provides a consistent method for describing Response Phase behavior, but also provides a framework for classifying and quantifying the Response Phase other than simply using the overall response time. An empirical response time model, based on data generated using the framework is also presented and applied to the evacuation trial data. The empirical response time model produces a prediction for the average response time for the trial population which is within 11% of the measured value. In addition to presenting Response Phase data, a data-set suitable for the validation of evacuation models is also presented. Computer simulations which attempt to reproduce the trial are compared to the validation data-set. While initial results are promising, analysis suggests that a model representation of exiting behavior through the exit turnstile is necessary.
Given the amount of data publically available relating to the incident at the Duisburg Love Parad... more Given the amount of data publically available relating to the incident at the Duisburg Love Parade of 2010, this event is a valuable case study for the development and management of large-scale crowd circulation and emergency incidents. Here, we study the crowd dynamics associated with a large crowd event similar to that of the Love Parade in Duisburg. The paper discusses the analysis of observations of the incident and explores the application of an evacuation model to investigate similar crowd scenarios. The data-set produced from this analysis was used to configure the buildingEXODUS model to approximate the original incident to verify whether buildingEXODUS can reliably represent agent actions, the conditions that develop and the impact of these developments upon performance. The model is then used to identify potential alternative crowd management and ingress/egress strategies to prevent the crowd crush incident from occurring. Traditionally, fine mesh evacuation models, such as buildingEXODUS, are not used to investigate high-density crowd conditions, because the underlying discretisation of space limits the maximum density that can be achieved within the models. In this paper, a novel approach is used to combine the data of pedestrian flow and space utilisation to indicate the onset of potentially dangerous population densities using a fine node model. The analysis demonstrates that the model can capture the key elements of such a large-scale incident and identify important causal factors. The work demonstrates that the model is broadly able to capture key crowd features if representative assumptions are implemented.
Evaluating ship layout for human factors (HF) issues using simulation software such as maritimeEX... more Evaluating ship layout for human factors (HF) issues using simulation software such as maritimeEXODUS can be a long and complex process. The analysis requires the identification of relevant evaluation scenarios; encompassing evacuation and normal operations; the development of appropriate measures which can be used to gauge the performance of crew and vessel and finally; the interpretation of considerable simulation data. In this paper we present a systematic and transparent methodology for assessing the ...
SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:6370.933(97/26) / BLDSC - British ... more SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:6370.933(97/26) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo
On 15 January 2019, I was instructed by the Grenfell Inquiry to suggest a set of interim recommen... more On 15 January 2019, I was instructed by the Grenfell Inquiry to suggest a set of interim recommendations for consideration by the Chairman. They concern Fire Safety, Fire Fighting Procedures and Building Regulation, and are based on my current analysis of the evidence relating to the Grenfell Tower fire. It is understood that interim recommendations suggested by the Inquiry's experts, if accepted by the Chairman, may be made by the Chairman now or following completion of his Phase 1 report. To be accepted for consideration, suggested interim recommendations should fall into one or other of the following two categories: 1. Recommendations that are so urgent that they should be made now and prior to the completion of his Phase 1 report. To fall into this category the recommendation must be one which is: a) obvious in the light of the evidence which has been heard at Phase 1; and b) so urgent on grounds of public safety that it should not be deferred until either the publication of...
Once the preserve of university academics and research laboratories with high-powered and expensi... more Once the preserve of university academics and research laboratories with high-powered and expensive computers, the power of sophisticated mathematical fire models has now arrived on the desk top of the fire safety engineer. It is a revolution made possible by parallel advances in PC technology and fire modelling software. But while the tools have proliferated, there has not been a corresponding transfer of knowledge and understanding of the discipline from expert to general user. It is a serious shortfall of which the lack of suitable engineering courses dealing with the subject is symptomatic, if not the cause. The computational vehicles to run the models and an understanding of fire dynamics are not enough to exploit these sophisticated tools. Too often, they become 'black boxes' producing magic answers in exciting three-dimensional colour graphics and client-satisfying 'virtual reality' imagery. As well as a fundamental understanding of the physics and chemistry of fire, the fire safety engineer must have at least a rudimentary understanding of the theoretical basis supporting fire models to appreciate their limitations and capabilities. The five day short course, "Principles and Practice of Fire Modelling" run by the University of Greenwich attempt to bridge the divide between the expert and the general user, providing them with the expertise they need to understand the results of mathematical fire modelling. The course and associated text book, "Mathematical Modelling of Fire Phenomena" are aimed at students and professionals with a wide and varied background, they offer a friendly guide through the unfamiliar terrain of mathematical modelling. These concepts and techniques are introduced and demonstrated in seminars. Those attending also gain experience in using the methods during "hands-on" tutorial and workshop sessions. On completion of this short course, those participating should: - be familiar with the concept of zone and field modelling; - be familiar with zone and field model assumptions; - have an understanding of the capabilities and limitations of modelling software packages for zone and field modelling; - be able to select and use the most appropriate mathematical software and demonstrate their use in compartment fire applications; and - be able to interpret model predictions. The result is that the fire safety engineer is empowered to realise the full value of mathematical models to help in the prediction of fire development, and to determine the consequences of fire under a variety of conditions. This in turn enables him or her to design and implement safety measures which can potentially control, or at the very least reduce the impact of fire.
ï‚· A unique high-rise construction site evacuation validation data-set is presented. ï‚· A metric is... more ï‚· A unique high-rise construction site evacuation validation data-set is presented. ï‚· A metric is presented to measure performance of evacuation simulation software. ï‚· The data-set and metric are used to assess the performance of buildingEXODUS.
Signage systems are widely used in the built environment to aid occupant wayfinding during both c... more Signage systems are widely used in the built environment to aid occupant wayfinding during both circulation and evacuation. Recent research conducted by the authors shows that only 38% of people 'see' conventional static emergency signage in presumed emergency situations in an unfamiliar built environment, even if the sign is located directly in front of them and their vision is unobstructed. However, most people who see the sign follow the sign. These results suggest that current emergency guidance signs are less effective as an aid to wayfinding than they potentially can be and that signs are likely to become more effective if their detectability can be improved while upholding the comprehensibility of the guidance information they provide. A novel dynamic signage design is proposed to address this issue by enhancing the affordance of the sign, while maintaining the simplicity and clarity of the information conveyed by the sign and the code compliance of the sign. The effectiveness of the new sign is tested under the same experimental settings and conditions as in previous experiments examining conventional, static signs. The results show that 77% of people 'see' the dynamic sign and 100% of them go on to follow the sign.
Abstract This paper presents an overview of human factors data collected via an online survey rel... more Abstract This paper presents an overview of human factors data collected via an online survey related to the use of lifts (elevators) and stairs during both circulation and evacuation scenarios. Survey participants were presented with a series of hypothetical situations and asked how they would behave. The survey was split into two broad sections, the first dealing with normal circulation usage of lifts/stairs and the second dealing with evacuation usage of lifts/stairs. Detailed demographic information about each participant was also collected. In ...
This paper describes work undertaken to quantify the performance of trained hospital staff in eva... more This paper describes work undertaken to quantify the performance of trained hospital staff in evacuating people with reduced mobility. Data were collected from 32 trials in which a test subject was evacuated through 11 floors of Ghent University Hospital using four commonly used movement assistance devices: stretcher, carry chair, evacuation chair and rescue sheet. Presented in the paper are performance results for both male and female assist teams, including device preparation time, horizontal speeds, vertical speeds and overtaking potential in stairwells. These data form the basis of the device performance evaluation presented in this paper. A comparative methodology is derived to assess the efficiency of the devices and enable performance differences to be established. Finally, the data collected are used in a numerical simulation of the evacuation of a ward, located on the 11th floor of a hospital, containing 28 non-ambulant patients. The scenarios investigate the time required to evacuate the ward using each of the four assist devices, assuming only the day or night shift staff are available. Furthermore, the scenarios consider the performance of all-male and all-female handlers and also take into consideration the impact of fatigue on the handlers.
Current understanding of dwelling fire injury outcomes is impacted by data limitations, confounds... more Current understanding of dwelling fire injury outcomes is impacted by data limitations, confounds, and failures to adequately examine occupant behaviour. For instance, research rarely considers: occupant perception of fire hazard properties (e.g. size of flames/smoke when first encountered); resultant engagement (enter smoky room, tackle flames); whether hazard size percepts are accurate when recollected for investigators; and what the best recollection method is. Two experiments (N = 141, 132) presented short videos of kitchen fires where hazard size was either Small, Mid or Large. Immediately after seeing this (Experiment 1), or after a delay (Experiment 2), participants' performance at recollecting hazard size and their willingness to (hypothetically) engage with the hazards was tested. Recollection performance was compared across three methods. Interestingly, free recall resulted in poor performance but performance improved by 2-3 times when using two types of layperson-friendly descriptors (text, pictures) that allowed hazard size to be referenced to other scene elements. Pictures had a slight advantage over text descriptors. Larger hazards were recollected less accurately than small ones, albeit still somewhat meaningfully; the exception was mid-sized smoke and attentional narrowing effects are discussed. Importantly, while increased hazard size reduced willingness, a concerning percentage of participants nevertheless considered engaging with the largest hazards; such risky behaviours may explain injury outcomes. Prior fire experience and gender affected recollection and willingness, often interacting with hazard size. Delayed recollection and individual differences did not. These findings suggest occupant behaviour, characteristics and hazard size data need capturing to help assess fire injury risks.
Computer based mathematical models describing the aircraft evacuation process have a vital role t... more Computer based mathematical models describing the aircraft evacuation process have a vital role to play in the design and development of safer aircraft, the implementation of safer and more rigorous certification criteria, in cabin crew training and post-mortem accident investigation. As the risk of personal injury and the costs involved in performing large-scale evacuation experiments for the next generation ultra high capacity aircraft (UHCA) are expected to be high, the development and use of these evacuation modelling tools may become essential if these aircraft are to prove a viable reality. This paper describes the capabilities and limitations of the airEXODUS evacuation model and some attempts at validation, including its successful application to the prediction of a recent certification trial, prior to the actual trial taking place. Also described is a newly defined performance parameter known as OPS that can be used as a measure of evacuation trial optimality. In addition, ...
Blended Wing Body (BWB) aircraft with around 1000 passengers and crew are being proposed by aircr... more Blended Wing Body (BWB) aircraft with around 1000 passengers and crew are being proposed by aircraft manufacturers. This type of aircraft configuration is radically different from conventional tube type passenger aircraft and so it is essential to explore issues related to both fire and evacuation for these configurations. Due to both the large size and the unusual nature of the cabin layouts, computer simulation provides the ideal method to explore these issues. In this paper we describe the application of both fire and evacuation simulation to BWB cabin configurations. The validity of the computer evacaution simulations is also explored through full-scale evacuation experiments.
During a major evacuation of high capacity buildings, such as a tower block or transportation hub... more During a major evacuation of high capacity buildings, such as a tower block or transportation hub, the emergency services will need to consider the safety of the people within the vicinity of the emergency. However, in general, when assessing the safety of a building for evacuation only the behaviour within the building is considered. One method of assessing this is to utilise a computer based simulation tool. This research outlines a number of developments required to simulate the impact of traffic on the evacuation process in an urban environment in relation to post-exiting behaviour. It uses a unique data set and model capabilities for representing pedestrian-vehicle interaction post-evacuation, which also considers the impact of time pressures on decision making. In addition, a number of software developments and pedestrian behaviours are identified for bridging the behavioural gaps when interfacing an emergency pedestrian model with a traffic simulation.
The evacuation certification trial is an aviation benchmark which requires that all the passenger... more The evacuation certification trial is an aviation benchmark which requires that all the passengers must safely evacuate from the aircraft within 90 seconds through 50% of the available exits. Typically a single exit from each pair of exits is selected resulting in all available exits being located along one side of the aircraft. In this study, the influences of exit availability in post-crash aircraft fires on passengers' survivability are investigated using a narrow body aircraft, which satisfies the certification requirement. Two exit configurations are investigated: one complying with the typical certification trial configuration and the other one being an exit configuration commonly occuring in real accidents. The work is carried out using the fire and evacuation engineering tools, SMARTFIRE and airEXODUS. Uner a post-crash cabin fire situation, the certification trial exit configuration produces a longer time to flashover, a shorter evacuation time and as a result a signifi...
This paper describes the architecture of the case based reasoning (CBR) component of Smartfire, a... more This paper describes the architecture of the case based reasoning (CBR) component of Smartfire, a fire field modelling tool for use by members of the Fire Safety Engineering community who are not expert in modelling techniques. The CBR system captures the qualitative reasoning of an experienced modeller in the assessment of room geometries so as to set up the important initial parameters of the problem. The system relies on two important reasoning principles obtained from the expert: 1) there is a natural hierarchical retrieval mechanism which may be employed; and 2) much of the reasoning on a qualitative level is linear in nature, although the computational solution of the problem is non-linear. The paper describes the qualitative representation of geometric room information on which the system is based, and the principles on which the CBR system operates.
Computer based mathematical models describing the aircraft evacuation process have a vital role t... more Computer based mathematical models describing the aircraft evacuation process have a vital role to play in the design and development of safer aircraft, the implementation of safer and more rigorous certification criteria, in cabin crew training and post-mortem accident investigation. As the risk of personal injury and the costs involved in performing full-scale certification trials are high, the development and use of these evacuation modelling tools are essential. Furthermore, evacuation models provide insight into the evacuation process that is impossible to derive from a single certification trial. The airEXODUS evacuation model has been under development since 1989 with support from the UK CAA and the aviation industry. In addition to describing the capabilities of the airEXODUS evacuation model, this paper describes the findings of a recent CAA project aimed at investigating model accuracy in predicting past certification trials. Furthermore, airEXODUS is used to examine issue...
This paper presents an overview of human factors data collected via an online survey related to t... more This paper presents an overview of human factors data collected via an online survey related to the use of lifts (elevators) and stairs during both circulation and evacuation scenarios. Survey participants were presented with a series of hypothetical situations and asked how they would behave. The survey was split into two broad sections, the first dealing with normal circulation usage of lifts/stairs and the second dealing with evacuation usage of lifts/stairs. Detailed demographic information about each participant was also collected. In total some 468 people from 23 countries completed the survey. An overview of the survey and initial results are presented in this paper.
In this paper results from an unannounced evacuation trial conducted within a library in Izmir Tu... more In this paper results from an unannounced evacuation trial conducted within a library in Izmir Turkey are presented and discussed. This experimental evacuation is part of a large international study investigating the impact of culture on evacuation behavior. In addition, a framework to enable the systematic analysis of Response Phase behaviors is presented and applied to the trial data. The framework not only provides a consistent method for describing Response Phase behavior, but also provides a framework for classifying and quantifying the Response Phase other than simply using the overall response time. An empirical response time model, based on data generated using the framework is also presented and applied to the evacuation trial data. The empirical response time model produces a prediction for the average response time for the trial population which is within 11% of the measured value. In addition to presenting Response Phase data, a data-set suitable for the validation of evacuation models is also presented. Computer simulations which attempt to reproduce the trial are compared to the validation data-set. While initial results are promising, analysis suggests that a model representation of exiting behavior through the exit turnstile is necessary.
Given the amount of data publically available relating to the incident at the Duisburg Love Parad... more Given the amount of data publically available relating to the incident at the Duisburg Love Parade of 2010, this event is a valuable case study for the development and management of large-scale crowd circulation and emergency incidents. Here, we study the crowd dynamics associated with a large crowd event similar to that of the Love Parade in Duisburg. The paper discusses the analysis of observations of the incident and explores the application of an evacuation model to investigate similar crowd scenarios. The data-set produced from this analysis was used to configure the buildingEXODUS model to approximate the original incident to verify whether buildingEXODUS can reliably represent agent actions, the conditions that develop and the impact of these developments upon performance. The model is then used to identify potential alternative crowd management and ingress/egress strategies to prevent the crowd crush incident from occurring. Traditionally, fine mesh evacuation models, such as buildingEXODUS, are not used to investigate high-density crowd conditions, because the underlying discretisation of space limits the maximum density that can be achieved within the models. In this paper, a novel approach is used to combine the data of pedestrian flow and space utilisation to indicate the onset of potentially dangerous population densities using a fine node model. The analysis demonstrates that the model can capture the key elements of such a large-scale incident and identify important causal factors. The work demonstrates that the model is broadly able to capture key crowd features if representative assumptions are implemented.
Evaluating ship layout for human factors (HF) issues using simulation software such as maritimeEX... more Evaluating ship layout for human factors (HF) issues using simulation software such as maritimeEXODUS can be a long and complex process. The analysis requires the identification of relevant evaluation scenarios; encompassing evacuation and normal operations; the development of appropriate measures which can be used to gauge the performance of crew and vessel and finally; the interpretation of considerable simulation data. In this paper we present a systematic and transparent methodology for assessing the ...
SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:6370.933(97/26) / BLDSC - British ... more SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:6370.933(97/26) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo
On 15 January 2019, I was instructed by the Grenfell Inquiry to suggest a set of interim recommen... more On 15 January 2019, I was instructed by the Grenfell Inquiry to suggest a set of interim recommendations for consideration by the Chairman. They concern Fire Safety, Fire Fighting Procedures and Building Regulation, and are based on my current analysis of the evidence relating to the Grenfell Tower fire. It is understood that interim recommendations suggested by the Inquiry's experts, if accepted by the Chairman, may be made by the Chairman now or following completion of his Phase 1 report. To be accepted for consideration, suggested interim recommendations should fall into one or other of the following two categories: 1. Recommendations that are so urgent that they should be made now and prior to the completion of his Phase 1 report. To fall into this category the recommendation must be one which is: a) obvious in the light of the evidence which has been heard at Phase 1; and b) so urgent on grounds of public safety that it should not be deferred until either the publication of...
Once the preserve of university academics and research laboratories with high-powered and expensi... more Once the preserve of university academics and research laboratories with high-powered and expensive computers, the power of sophisticated mathematical fire models has now arrived on the desk top of the fire safety engineer. It is a revolution made possible by parallel advances in PC technology and fire modelling software. But while the tools have proliferated, there has not been a corresponding transfer of knowledge and understanding of the discipline from expert to general user. It is a serious shortfall of which the lack of suitable engineering courses dealing with the subject is symptomatic, if not the cause. The computational vehicles to run the models and an understanding of fire dynamics are not enough to exploit these sophisticated tools. Too often, they become 'black boxes' producing magic answers in exciting three-dimensional colour graphics and client-satisfying 'virtual reality' imagery. As well as a fundamental understanding of the physics and chemistry of fire, the fire safety engineer must have at least a rudimentary understanding of the theoretical basis supporting fire models to appreciate their limitations and capabilities. The five day short course, "Principles and Practice of Fire Modelling" run by the University of Greenwich attempt to bridge the divide between the expert and the general user, providing them with the expertise they need to understand the results of mathematical fire modelling. The course and associated text book, "Mathematical Modelling of Fire Phenomena" are aimed at students and professionals with a wide and varied background, they offer a friendly guide through the unfamiliar terrain of mathematical modelling. These concepts and techniques are introduced and demonstrated in seminars. Those attending also gain experience in using the methods during "hands-on" tutorial and workshop sessions. On completion of this short course, those participating should: - be familiar with the concept of zone and field modelling; - be familiar with zone and field model assumptions; - have an understanding of the capabilities and limitations of modelling software packages for zone and field modelling; - be able to select and use the most appropriate mathematical software and demonstrate their use in compartment fire applications; and - be able to interpret model predictions. The result is that the fire safety engineer is empowered to realise the full value of mathematical models to help in the prediction of fire development, and to determine the consequences of fire under a variety of conditions. This in turn enables him or her to design and implement safety measures which can potentially control, or at the very least reduce the impact of fire.
ï‚· A unique high-rise construction site evacuation validation data-set is presented. ï‚· A metric is... more ï‚· A unique high-rise construction site evacuation validation data-set is presented. ï‚· A metric is presented to measure performance of evacuation simulation software. ï‚· The data-set and metric are used to assess the performance of buildingEXODUS.
Signage systems are widely used in the built environment to aid occupant wayfinding during both c... more Signage systems are widely used in the built environment to aid occupant wayfinding during both circulation and evacuation. Recent research conducted by the authors shows that only 38% of people 'see' conventional static emergency signage in presumed emergency situations in an unfamiliar built environment, even if the sign is located directly in front of them and their vision is unobstructed. However, most people who see the sign follow the sign. These results suggest that current emergency guidance signs are less effective as an aid to wayfinding than they potentially can be and that signs are likely to become more effective if their detectability can be improved while upholding the comprehensibility of the guidance information they provide. A novel dynamic signage design is proposed to address this issue by enhancing the affordance of the sign, while maintaining the simplicity and clarity of the information conveyed by the sign and the code compliance of the sign. The effectiveness of the new sign is tested under the same experimental settings and conditions as in previous experiments examining conventional, static signs. The results show that 77% of people 'see' the dynamic sign and 100% of them go on to follow the sign.
Abstract This paper presents an overview of human factors data collected via an online survey rel... more Abstract This paper presents an overview of human factors data collected via an online survey related to the use of lifts (elevators) and stairs during both circulation and evacuation scenarios. Survey participants were presented with a series of hypothetical situations and asked how they would behave. The survey was split into two broad sections, the first dealing with normal circulation usage of lifts/stairs and the second dealing with evacuation usage of lifts/stairs. Detailed demographic information about each participant was also collected. In ...
This paper describes work undertaken to quantify the performance of trained hospital staff in eva... more This paper describes work undertaken to quantify the performance of trained hospital staff in evacuating people with reduced mobility. Data were collected from 32 trials in which a test subject was evacuated through 11 floors of Ghent University Hospital using four commonly used movement assistance devices: stretcher, carry chair, evacuation chair and rescue sheet. Presented in the paper are performance results for both male and female assist teams, including device preparation time, horizontal speeds, vertical speeds and overtaking potential in stairwells. These data form the basis of the device performance evaluation presented in this paper. A comparative methodology is derived to assess the efficiency of the devices and enable performance differences to be established. Finally, the data collected are used in a numerical simulation of the evacuation of a ward, located on the 11th floor of a hospital, containing 28 non-ambulant patients. The scenarios investigate the time required to evacuate the ward using each of the four assist devices, assuming only the day or night shift staff are available. Furthermore, the scenarios consider the performance of all-male and all-female handlers and also take into consideration the impact of fatigue on the handlers.
Current understanding of dwelling fire injury outcomes is impacted by data limitations, confounds... more Current understanding of dwelling fire injury outcomes is impacted by data limitations, confounds, and failures to adequately examine occupant behaviour. For instance, research rarely considers: occupant perception of fire hazard properties (e.g. size of flames/smoke when first encountered); resultant engagement (enter smoky room, tackle flames); whether hazard size percepts are accurate when recollected for investigators; and what the best recollection method is. Two experiments (N = 141, 132) presented short videos of kitchen fires where hazard size was either Small, Mid or Large. Immediately after seeing this (Experiment 1), or after a delay (Experiment 2), participants' performance at recollecting hazard size and their willingness to (hypothetically) engage with the hazards was tested. Recollection performance was compared across three methods. Interestingly, free recall resulted in poor performance but performance improved by 2-3 times when using two types of layperson-friendly descriptors (text, pictures) that allowed hazard size to be referenced to other scene elements. Pictures had a slight advantage over text descriptors. Larger hazards were recollected less accurately than small ones, albeit still somewhat meaningfully; the exception was mid-sized smoke and attentional narrowing effects are discussed. Importantly, while increased hazard size reduced willingness, a concerning percentage of participants nevertheless considered engaging with the largest hazards; such risky behaviours may explain injury outcomes. Prior fire experience and gender affected recollection and willingness, often interacting with hazard size. Delayed recollection and individual differences did not. These findings suggest occupant behaviour, characteristics and hazard size data need capturing to help assess fire injury risks.
Computer based mathematical models describing the aircraft evacuation process have a vital role t... more Computer based mathematical models describing the aircraft evacuation process have a vital role to play in the design and development of safer aircraft, the implementation of safer and more rigorous certification criteria, in cabin crew training and post-mortem accident investigation. As the risk of personal injury and the costs involved in performing large-scale evacuation experiments for the next generation ultra high capacity aircraft (UHCA) are expected to be high, the development and use of these evacuation modelling tools may become essential if these aircraft are to prove a viable reality. This paper describes the capabilities and limitations of the airEXODUS evacuation model and some attempts at validation, including its successful application to the prediction of a recent certification trial, prior to the actual trial taking place. Also described is a newly defined performance parameter known as OPS that can be used as a measure of evacuation trial optimality. In addition, ...
Blended Wing Body (BWB) aircraft with around 1000 passengers and crew are being proposed by aircr... more Blended Wing Body (BWB) aircraft with around 1000 passengers and crew are being proposed by aircraft manufacturers. This type of aircraft configuration is radically different from conventional tube type passenger aircraft and so it is essential to explore issues related to both fire and evacuation for these configurations. Due to both the large size and the unusual nature of the cabin layouts, computer simulation provides the ideal method to explore these issues. In this paper we describe the application of both fire and evacuation simulation to BWB cabin configurations. The validity of the computer evacaution simulations is also explored through full-scale evacuation experiments.
During a major evacuation of high capacity buildings, such as a tower block or transportation hub... more During a major evacuation of high capacity buildings, such as a tower block or transportation hub, the emergency services will need to consider the safety of the people within the vicinity of the emergency. However, in general, when assessing the safety of a building for evacuation only the behaviour within the building is considered. One method of assessing this is to utilise a computer based simulation tool. This research outlines a number of developments required to simulate the impact of traffic on the evacuation process in an urban environment in relation to post-exiting behaviour. It uses a unique data set and model capabilities for representing pedestrian-vehicle interaction post-evacuation, which also considers the impact of time pressures on decision making. In addition, a number of software developments and pedestrian behaviours are identified for bridging the behavioural gaps when interfacing an emergency pedestrian model with a traffic simulation.
The evacuation certification trial is an aviation benchmark which requires that all the passenger... more The evacuation certification trial is an aviation benchmark which requires that all the passengers must safely evacuate from the aircraft within 90 seconds through 50% of the available exits. Typically a single exit from each pair of exits is selected resulting in all available exits being located along one side of the aircraft. In this study, the influences of exit availability in post-crash aircraft fires on passengers' survivability are investigated using a narrow body aircraft, which satisfies the certification requirement. Two exit configurations are investigated: one complying with the typical certification trial configuration and the other one being an exit configuration commonly occuring in real accidents. The work is carried out using the fire and evacuation engineering tools, SMARTFIRE and airEXODUS. Uner a post-crash cabin fire situation, the certification trial exit configuration produces a longer time to flashover, a shorter evacuation time and as a result a signifi...
This paper describes the architecture of the case based reasoning (CBR) component of Smartfire, a... more This paper describes the architecture of the case based reasoning (CBR) component of Smartfire, a fire field modelling tool for use by members of the Fire Safety Engineering community who are not expert in modelling techniques. The CBR system captures the qualitative reasoning of an experienced modeller in the assessment of room geometries so as to set up the important initial parameters of the problem. The system relies on two important reasoning principles obtained from the expert: 1) there is a natural hierarchical retrieval mechanism which may be employed; and 2) much of the reasoning on a qualitative level is linear in nature, although the computational solution of the problem is non-linear. The paper describes the qualitative representation of geometric room information on which the system is based, and the principles on which the CBR system operates.
Computer based mathematical models describing the aircraft evacuation process have a vital role t... more Computer based mathematical models describing the aircraft evacuation process have a vital role to play in the design and development of safer aircraft, the implementation of safer and more rigorous certification criteria, in cabin crew training and post-mortem accident investigation. As the risk of personal injury and the costs involved in performing full-scale certification trials are high, the development and use of these evacuation modelling tools are essential. Furthermore, evacuation models provide insight into the evacuation process that is impossible to derive from a single certification trial. The airEXODUS evacuation model has been under development since 1989 with support from the UK CAA and the aviation industry. In addition to describing the capabilities of the airEXODUS evacuation model, this paper describes the findings of a recent CAA project aimed at investigating model accuracy in predicting past certification trials. Furthermore, airEXODUS is used to examine issue...
Uploads
Papers by Edwin Galea