A Discrete Event Simulation Model for the Egress Dynamics from Buildings

Safe egress of people from closed buildings is a critical issue, in which modern control methodologies and information and communication technologies play a crucial role. Current research trends suggest us to profitably use wireless networks of distributed sensors and actuators. Then, a large amount of feedback from the real scenario is needed to determine control outputs. In this paper, we use a discrete event system approach to define a simulation model of a complex real scenario. The egress of students and academic staff from a lecture area in the School of Engineering in Bari was simulated, to validate the modeling approach in predicting the evacuation process. Performance indices (flows of individuals in spaces and at critical points, number of evacuated people, time to complete egress) were measured in standard conditions when no emergency or panic phenomena occurred. The results show that the model properly represents real phenomena like blocking, congestion or overcrowding, and faster-is-slower effect. Then, the same approach could be efficient to predict flows in emergency conditions, when specific control actions are taken for speeding-up egress safely