Experiment, Simulation and Calibration of Parameters of Laboratory Evacuation

Emergency evacuation is essential for escaping safely from any built-up facility in case of fire. In the past, many evacuation experiments and simulations were conducted in different facilities. Simulations are conducted with different models. In the literature, very few studies were found to address the evacuation from a laboratory facility in a university, besides the calibration of parameters of a particular type of model. In this study, an experiment (partially announced fire drill) was conducted in a laboratory. Simulations were done through an agent-based model. Calibrations were carried out to estimate the parameters related to human behavior. Sensitivity analysis is done to find out the most influencing parameters affecting the total evacuation time. Coupled fire and evacuation simulation is done to find out the effect of fire-induced smoke on the occupants for different exposure times. The fire size and the pre-evacuation time are found to influence the incapacitation of the evacuees.