Integrate Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Occupant Characteristics Simulator to Assess the Effectiveness of Emergency Requirements

Abstract

Building fires are a major hazard to residents, first responders, and the structural system. Rapid spread can impede evacuation, resulting in human fatalities. However, studying occupant characteristics in a burning building is unrealistic and unethical. Hence, the current data-gathering techniques employed in evacuation simulation models have constraints when capturing occupant attributes. To address these constraints, The study introduces a novel method of serious gaming that combines Building Information Modelling (BIM) with an occupant characteristics simulator with varying mobility capabilities depending on age, gender, and physical ability, using Unity3D, to simulate fire growth and evacuation duration for residential buildings with and without emergency requirements. The study reveals that occupant characteristics significantly affect evacuation time, and implementing emergency requirements can improve evacuation efficiency in fire-exposed residential buildings by up to 100%. Implementing emergency requirements reduced mortality rates from 50% to 0%, suggesting that simulation results can be used to improve building design and emergency needs assessment.