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Keywords
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People evacuation, Evacuation simulation, Emergency evacuation, Evacuation time, Distinct element method
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Abstract
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People emergency evacuation and especially evacuation time in a disastrous condition such as an earthquake and fire are of great importance. Here we observed evacuation behavior of Assembly Hall of Humanities Faculty of Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University (ASMU). Simulations are done by using distinct element method (DEM). In DEM, people are considered as circular elements and analysis can compute the position of each person (element) step by step by solving the equations of motion. Four cases with different number and arrangement of people are considered in which the number of people were 350, 400, 450 and 500 for cases 1 to 4, respectively. As the evaluation criteria, part three of National Building Regulations of Iran “Building Fire Protection” is adopted in which the nominal evacuation time limit for this kind of confined space is considered to be 200 sec. Evacuation simulations are done for considered cases and evacuation behavior and time are calculated quantitatively. Evacuation times are determined to be 173, 174, 184 and 184 sec for cases 1 to 4, respectively. As results show, in all considered cases, evacuation time is below the code limit and evacuation behavior of the assembly hall by considering this criterion is acceptable.
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