Investigating the configuration of efficient spaces with the safe evacuation approach of the building during the accident (Case Study: Student Dormitory)

In recent years, the expansion of higher education centers and universities has led to a growing number of students and student dormitories. Due to the large number of students in the dormitories, fires and accidents in these areas are considered as a serious threat. In this regard several measures have been taken to limit and reduce injury in dormitories in the event of an accident involving both structural and non-structural measures. These measures first provide safety and then enhance the environmental potential for rapid evacuation (i+n the event of an accident). Therefore, several studies have focused on reducing evacuation duration by simulating emergency evacuation. For this purpose, this paper simulates the human evacuation in the student dormitory of Block 1 of Shahid Beheshti University (with 178 students simulated) during the accident in Pathfinder software. In addition, physical depth and visual depth were analyzed by input-based Depth map software to reduce spatial hierarchy and faster access. The simulation results showed that preliminary optimization of the dormitory with furniture and equipment (non-structural measures) was a prerequisite for dormitory immunization to be evacuated, but due to its negligible effect on evacuation time (from 223.7 seconds to 219.8 seconds) it is not enough. Therefore, after optimization with furniture and equipment, the dormitory was evaluated with two methods of structural intervention (construction of emergency stairs with two exit doors) and reduction of the population of users. In the first method, with the structural intervention, the evacuation time was reduced from 219.8 seconds to 150.5 seconds, and in the second method by reducing the population of users in the end of second and third floors from 4 to 3 persons, evacuation time decreased from 219.8 seconds to 178.8 seconds which was suggested as a less expensive method. In the end, a method was proposed to make the dormitory work efficient with respect to the spatial configuration for emergency evacuation.