The effect of architectural variables on the crowd evacuation in emergencies

emergency evacuation is one of the first stages of crisis management, and reducing the time of complete evacuation has a great effect on reducing casualties caused by accidents. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effect of architectural design factors as well as the effect of changes in the initial plan during construction and operation on the evacuation time of mosques.

The research method is applied in nature, descriptive, analytical, and results are explanatory. This study has been carried out by using the agent-based model to simulating the emergency evacuation, by making changes in the state of corridors and exits, with the aim of reducing the evacuation time and reducing the population density during evacuation. Therefore, Malayer University Mosque was selected as a case study and in four different scenarios, the crowd evacuation was simulated based on the initial plan of the consultant, the existing situation, the proposed 1 and 2 plans.

The evacuation time and the population density in corridors and exits were investigated and compared in four different scenarios. The comparison of complete evacuation time and average evacuation time in proposed plans 1 and 2 shows that creating two exit doors (with a width equal to one door in other options) in the main courtyard of the mosque in proposed plan 2 does not help much to reduce the overall evacuation time of the building. The average distance traveled in the proposed plan 1 has decreased by 23% and 36.6% compared to the original plan and the existing situation, respectively. The average distance in the proposed plan 2 has also decreased by 32.7% and 44.5% compared to the original plan and the existing situation, respectively. The average distance traveled in proposed plan 2 has also decreased by 12.4% compared to proposed plan 1.

The results obtained from the simulation of four different scenarios indicated that the current situation due to the blocking of the main exit of the people on the south side of the building, has the worst time for the complete evacuation of the building among the four different scenarios, which shows the importance of managing buildings and gathering centers in especially the changes of exit routes during operation. By using the change in architectural variables (which includes the increase of exit doors and the average distance traveled), the complete evacuation time of the building can be reduced by 67.2%. Comparing the average distances traveled shows that although the increase in the number of doors in the courtyard of the mosque has not helped much in reducing the time of complete evacuation of the building; but reducing the distance traveled can play an important role in preventing more people from bumping into each other and also preventing fatigue, especially for the elderly, disabled and children.