AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON CONFLUENCE OF TWO FOOT TRAFFIC FLOWS lN STAIRCASE

Hokugo, Akihiko; Kubo, Kousuke; Murozaki, Yoshiteru

doi:10.3130/aijax.358.0_37

Cited by 8 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…Takeichi et al [6] extended the earlier experiments of Hokugo et al [5] to consider situations where the floor stream merges with the descending stair stream in two different locations, one adjacent to the incoming stair and one opposite the incoming stair (this type of arrangement is demonstrated in Figure 2). While their experiments only consisted of some 27 participants in total -resulting in very brief measurable periods -the results suggest that the floor flow rate onto the landing is strongly dependent on the density of people on the stairs and the location of the landing door relative to the incoming stair.…”

Section: Introduction Imentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Even though much has been written concerning human behavior associated with evacuation from high-rise buildings and the behavior of people while descending stairs (see for example [1][2][3][4]), little detailed attention has been focused on the merging behavior of occupant flows on staircases. While several studies have been reported in the literature dealing with the observation of merging streams on stairs [5][6][7][8] during controlled experiments and drills, there is little detailed understanding of the factors that control and influence the merging process or systematic quantification of the merging process. This lack of knowledge makes it difficult both to develop and verify advanced computer egress models for high-rise building applications.…”

Section: Introduction Imentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of even greater significance, the general architectural and building engineering community is designing pedestrian flow and evacuation systems without a detailed understanding of how the basic components perform. During building evacuation it is common to see floor streams and stair streams merging on stair landings [5][6][7][8]. However, a consistent and detailed description of the merging process over a variety of scenarios involving: incident type; building type; architectural features of landings, stairs and floor-stair interfaces; crowd densities, and crowd demeanor has not been reported.…”

Section: Introduction Imentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hokugo et al [5] describe a series of three floor-stair merging experiments involving some 150 participants. The experiments investigated the nature of the merging process at the stair landing resulting from the interaction of two streams, a stair stream created by trial participants descending from upper floors and a floor stream.…”

Section: Introduction Imentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The work of Hokugo et al [5] and Takeichi et al [6], and others [4,7,8] suggest that the merging behavior at floor-stair interfaces is strongly influenced by physical attributes related to the architecture of the geometry and the density of the crowds on the stairs. However, these findings are based on staged experiments and evacuation drills.…”

Section: Introduction Imentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Investigating the Representation of Merging Behavior at the Floor--Stair Interface in Computer Simulations of Multi-Floor Building Evacuations

Galea

Sharp²,

Lawrence³

2008

Journal of Fire Protection Engineering

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In this article, the representation of the merging process at the floorstair interface is examined within a comprehensive evacuation model and trends found in experimental data are compared with model predictions. The analysis suggests that the representation of floor-stair merging within the comprehensive model appears to be consistent with trends observed within several published experiments of the merging process. In particular: (a) The floor flow rate onto the stairs decreases as the stair population density increases. (b) For a given stair population density, the floor population's flow rate onto the stairs can be maximized by connecting the floor to the landing adjacent to the incoming stair. (c) In situations where the floor is connected adjacent to the incoming stair, the merging process appears to be biased in favor of the floor population. It is further conjectured that when the floor is connected opposite the incoming stair, the merging process between the stair and floor streams is almost in balance for high stair population densities, with a slight bias in favor of the floor stream at low population densities. A key practical finding of this analysis is that the speed at which a floor can be emptied onto a stair can be enhanced simply by connecting the floor to the landing at a location adjacent to the incoming stair rather than opposite the stair. Configuring the stair in this way, while reducing the floor emptying time, results in a corresponding decrease in the descent flow rate of those already on the stairs. While this is expected to have a negligible impact on the overall time to evacuate the building, the evacuation time for those higher up in the building is extended while those on the lower flows is reduced. It is thus suggested that in high-rise buildings, floors should be connected to the landing on the opposite side to the incoming stair. Information of this type will allow engineers to better design stair-floor interfaces to meet specific design objectives.

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Section: Introduction Imentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Introduction Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction Imentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Investigating the Representation of Merging Behavior at the Floor--Stair Interface in Computer Simulations of Multi-Floor Building Evacuations

Galea

Sharp²,

Lawrence³

2008

Journal of Fire Protection Engineering

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Experimental studies to investigate merging behaviour in a staircase

Boyce

Purser²,

Shields

2011

Fire and Materials

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SUMMARY The quantification of merging flows and the factors that influence evacuee merging behaviour are important considerations in our understanding of emergency evacuation of particularly high‐rise buildings, and essential for better escape route design and evacuation modelling. This paper presents the results of three evacuation studies to investigate merging flows and behaviours on stairs. Stair:floor merging ratios are provided together with specific flows from the floor and stair. The potential influence of the geometrical location of the floor relative to the stair and the occupant population is discussed. The results indicate that, despite differences in the geometrical location of the door in relation to the stair and the relative stair/door width, the merging was approximately 50:50 across the duration of the merge period in each of the buildings studied. Differences in merge patterns were however evident throughout the merge periods in each of the buildings, particularly in the case where the floor occupants approached from a corridor adjacent to the incoming stair, in which case floor occupants took priority during periods of slower movement. There were also suggestions that some occupant characteristics such as gender or role may have a potential influence on merging, with very obvious deference behaviour of a few individuals dictating the merging in a mixed occupancy building. The studies highlight the potential influence of geometrical location of floor relative to the stair, relative door/stair widths and population characteristics on merge patterns and indicate that much more work is required in this area. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Human behavior in a staircase during a total evacuation drill in a high‐rise building

Sano

Yajima²,

Kadokura³

et al. 2016

Fire and Materials

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Summary Many studies have been conducted on the evacuation behavior on the staircases of buildings, but very little data are available for a situation with many occupants in a crowded high‐rise building. Therefore, this study investigated the evacuation behavior of a large number of evacuees on the staircase of a 25‐story high‐rise building. A total evacuation drill was conducted with 2088 evacuees, and the behavior of 1136 evacuees on the landings of the south staircase was recorded by a video recorder on the ceiling. The relationship between the density and speed of the evacuees on the landings was analyzed from the evacuation data for two situations: without and with merging in the stair flow. The evacuation stair flow in this drill had merging occupants entering from the floors, but no one entered from the lower floors during the latter period of the drill. Therefore, the flow during the latter period was treated as non‐merging flow, for which it was observed that, when the staircase was fully crowded, the density on the landings in the moving situation was different from that in the stopped situation. Moreover, the density on the landings was different from that on the treads. Furthermore, in the merging flow, a merging ratio of approximately 50:50 occurred during the congested evacuation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON CONFLUENCE OF TWO FOOT TRAFFIC FLOWS lN STAIRCASE

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Investigating the Representation of Merging Behavior at the Floor--Stair Interface in Computer Simulations of Multi-Floor Building Evacuations

Investigating the Representation of Merging Behavior at the Floor--Stair Interface in Computer Simulations of Multi-Floor Building Evacuations

Experimental studies to investigate merging behaviour in a staircase

Human behavior in a staircase during a total evacuation drill in a high‐rise building

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