Evacuation in Buildings Based on BIM: Taking a Fire in a University Library as an Example

Abstract

As a typical public place, a university library has a large collection of books with heavy fire load, dense population, and large flow of people. The situation of safe evacuation in case of fire is very serious. This study utilizes Revit, Pyrosim, and Pathfinder software to research evacuation of a university library. First, a Building Information Modeling (BIM) is constructed based on Revit software in 1:1 scale. Second, the evacuation passage with the highest utilization rate was determined through Pathfinder software. According to the “most unfavorable principle,” the location near it was assumed to be where the fire occurred. Pyrosim software was used to determine the smoke spread, visibility, CO concentration, temperature, and other conditions at each stairway exit in case of fire. Finally, the evacuation situation is compared with that after man-made route planning. The results indicate that evacuation exits 1#, 7#, 13#, 19#, and 23# have the highest utilization rate. The safe evacuation time was 739.275 s, which was shortened to 638.025 s after man-made route planning, a 13.67% increase in evacuation efficiency. Evacuation efficiency can be significantly improved by increasing broadcast guidelines, adding signs, widening staircases, and other optimization suggestions, which can provide reference for the study of evacuation effects in public places and the improvement of the layout of public facilities.

Fire-Spread Characteristics and Evacuation Plan Optimization of Old Style Multi-Story Student Apartments

“…Evacuation routes should be clearly marked on walls and doors on each floor. Emergency exits and emergency exit indication signs should be added, and, to combat low visibility due to smoke, sound signals should be turned on to guide the evacuation [44]. Improving the safety awareness and knowledge of all personnel, broadcasting videos of relevant accidents and safety training for display on screens around the building, and regularly training and evaluating student safety and psychological knowledge, while ranking them, could also be beneficial.…”

Review of advanced emergency evacuation procedures in hospital buildings: comprehensive analysis and insights

“…This framework was structured around four phases: initial preparation, optimization with a meta-heuristic algorithm, decision-making considering budget constraints, and applying selected measures into BIM. Another study used BIM tools such as Revit, Pyrosim, and Pathfinder software that highlighted the process of constructing a BIM in 1: 1 scale, determining the evacuation passage with the highest utilization, and simulating fire scenarios to assess smoke spread and evacuation conditions (Zheng et al, 2022). The study found that strategic man-made route planning could significantly improve evacuation efficiency by 13.67%, suggesting that similar strategies could be applied to hospital settings to optimize the layout of operating rooms and evacuation routes, thereby enhancing overall safety during emergencies.…”

The Application and Prospects of Digital Visualization in Urban Public Building Space Design

“…Effective evacuation guidance and layout can improve the efficiency of personnel evacuation and ensure their safety [15]. For example, Haotian Zheng et al [16] used Revit software to create a 1:1 scale BIM model and then used Pathfinder software to determine the most efficient evacuation channels. Following the "worst-case principle," they assumed that the nearby area was the location of a fire.…”