Investigating the effect of exit route characteristics on hospital evacuation time in emergency situations

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Unforeseen events such as earthquakes, fires, terrorist events, etc., which are divided into two categories of natural events and man-made events, always threaten buildings and the lives of people living in them. Therefore, the evacuation of people living in buildings is an important and fundamental issue due to physical and time limitations. If people living in buildings do not manage to leave the building in an emergency situation for any reason, they may die due to various dangers such as bombings, fires, the presence of toxic gases and other dangers. Methods: This analytical study was conducted in Azarshahr Shahid Madani Hospital. First, the AutoCAD map of the hospital was prepared and the sections were separated by coloring. Two checklists were designed to collect information related to human behavior and characteristics, such as the number of people and how to carry them, and architectural data, such as the width of paths and doors, and were completed through field visits and attendance in departments. The dimensions of the obstacles in the routes were measured and their locations were recorded on the map. In order to investigate the effect of different variables on each specific goal, 10 scenarios were developed and coded. Considering the diverse range of people in the hospital environment, five types of behavior with different movement speeds were considered for people, and after loading the AutoCAD map of the building and random arrangement of people and obstacles according to the scenarios, scenario modeling was done. The tables and numbers obtained from this software were used to analyze the data. Results: According to the modeling done, for each scenario, information related to the time of the first person to leave, the time of the last person to leave, the average time to leave, the time to leave according to ALONE behavior, the time to leave according to BED behavior, the time to leave according to SCORT behavior, the time to leave according to STAFF behavior, the time The exit was obtained according to the WHEELCHAIR behavior and the distance traveled to exit the building, and the graphs related to each were drawn. Conclusion: Since the evacuation of buildings in emergency situations is one of the concerns of designers, managers and users of the space, therefore, in this research, three parameters influencing the process of evacuation of a hospital using the agent-based model and the A* algorithm are modeled and investigated and analyzed. it placed. The effective parameters of the obstacles in the emergency exit routes, the dimensions of the emergency exit doors and the width of the horizontal emergency exit routes were simulated in 10 different scenarios for each floor and the results showed an increase in the dimensions of the emergency exit doors and the width of the horizontal emergency exit routes and a decrease in the obstacles in the emergency exit routes. Emergency exit has a great effect in reducing evacuation time. Keywords: Exit route, evacuation time, hospital evacuation, emergency conditions