Today the fire safety design of buildings is mainly based on the performance based fire safety codes where calculations on total evacuation times and fire dynamics are made to show that the safety level in buildings is sufficient. For calculations on the evacuation times the applied theory and input are mainly based on people without impairments, who are able to evacuate by themselves (employment category 1-5). However, the evacuation-characteristics for the group of vulnerable people, accounting for people of all ages, as well as people with temporary or permanent impairments, are not well described.
In the last decades equal accessibility to buildings has gained a larger focus among engineers and has been included in building regulations in the whole world. As a consequence of the increased accessibility, people with disabilities have become a larger part of the population that frequents both public buildings and places of employment. The disabled part of the population also needs to be considered in a fire safety design in order to ensure equal egress. People have rights to be safe irrespective of age and disabilities.
Expected scientific outcome
Among the goals of the research performed in the group are to identify the evacuation characteristic of people irrespective age and impairment. The research covers a qualitative and quantitative analysis of data. Walking speeds, flows and densities are investigated as well as behavior.
The research provides new data on people with disabilities and their ability to evacuate in a safe and proper way and to influence future guidelines so that these include a representative description of this group. Among the expected findings are:
- New data on walking speeds of people
- Interactions between people with disabilities and able-bodied people as well as people all ages through an evacuation situatio
- Validation of existing evacuation models
- Developing of evacuation models accounting for people with disabilities and all ages.
PhD Project
Evacuation of people with visual impairments, J. G. Sørensen, ongoing
Evaluation characteristics of visually impaired people, A. R. Larusdottir, 2013
Publication
Sørensen J.G., Dederichs, A. (2013):
Evacuation safety - for everyone?
Journal of Fire Technology, 2013
Sørensen J.G., Dederichs, A. (2013):
Evacuation of visually impaired people: a qualitative and quantitative study
Journal: Fire and Materials 2013
Dederichs A., Larusdottir A.R. (2013):
Movement down stairs during elementary school fire drills
Journal of Fire and Materials, 2013
Dederichs A., Larusdottir A.R. (2012):
Evacuation of children - movement on stairs and on Horizontal Plane
Journal of Fire Technology, 2012
Contact
Anne Dederichs