Evacuation And Life Safety Strategies For Occupants In Super Tall Buildings (Dissertation Sample)

Dissertation Title:
EVACUATION AND LIFE SAFETY STRATEGIES FOR OCCUPANTS IN SUPER TALL BUILDINGS
Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u EVACUATION AND LIFE SAFETY STRATEGIES FOR OCCUPANTS IN SUPER TALL BUILDINGS PAGEREF _Toc478974334 \h 1Intrsuction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………3Definition of a high-rise building PAGEREF _Toc478974335 \h 5Aims PAGEREF _Toc478974336 \h 6Significance of the study PAGEREF _Toc478974337 \h 7Types of evacuation strategies available to high-rise occupants for both residential and commercial buildings PAGEREF _Toc478974338 \h 7Defend-in-place PAGEREF _Toc478974339 \h 8Partial or zoned evacuation PAGEREF _Toc478974340 \h 10Total evacuation PAGEREF _Toc478974341 \h 11Alternative escape means from high-rise buildings PAGEREF _Toc478974342 \h 12Stairs PAGEREF _Toc478974343 \h 12Evacuation elevators PAGEREF _Toc478974344 \h 13Sky-bridges PAGEREF _Toc478974345 \h 13Human behavior PAGEREF _Toc478974346 \h 14Introduction PAGEREF _Toc478974347 \h 14Behavior process during fire outbreaks PAGEREF _Toc478974348 \h 15Factors influencing human behavior during a fire emergency PAGEREF _Toc478974349 \h 18Modelling of case studies……………………………………………………………………………………………………22Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………. PAGEREF _Toc478974350 \h 23
Introduction
According to the definition presented by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA, 2012), high-rise building are building greater tat 75 feet in height when the height of the building is measured from the lowest point in the building, possibly starting from the point of fire vehicle access to the highest floor in the building. Hall (2011) asserts that there are building uses whose identification can lead to this kind of classification. The office building whose uses can lead to this kind of classification include residential buildings like hotels and apartment buildings as well as healthcare facilities. Hall (2011) further observed that from the points of view of both population and the infrastructure, each of these categories present different features or rather characteristics. It is important to analyze the use of the building or rater building use because it helps in predicting the possible potential behaviour of the building occupants and therefore help provide the best fire safety design. However, in as much as building codes always provide the minimum requirements that should be met in designing high-rise buildings, having additional life safety features is important inorder to help mitigate or reduce to a great extent the safety issues normally arising from the complexity of such high buildings and of course eradicate the additional form of difficulties that usually hinder firefighting operations.
The presence of international guidance like NFPA 101 in the United States (NFPA, 2012), or the approved document B of the United Kingdom( Building regulation, 2006) is actually to provide guidance and information regarding the design of egress components , such as the design of stairs, that can be applied to fit high-rise buildings. However, apart from the guidance offered by such international bodies, additional information on behavioural issues whose association is to egress performance during high-rise buildings evacuations is still needed. Although additional specific information in relation to high-rise buildings given the special particular features of these kinds of buildings is required, general concepts can be applied. In relation to high-rise buildings, various international committees have provided various recommendations. For example, in China, there is the GB50045-95 code for fire protection and design of tall buildings (GB50045-95, 2005). In Singapore, there are the Fire safety requirements for super high-rise buildings (Singapore Civil Defense Forces, 2006). Additionally, in India, there is the Chapter seven of the Fire and Life safety of National buildings code (Bureau of India Standards, 2006). According to Hall, (2011), recent statistics in the United States show that of all the fires reported in the United States per year, an average of 15,700 were in high buildings. The statistics further revealed that of the casualties reported, 53 were deaths and 546 were injuries. Additionally, statistics further reveal that there were property damages to the tune of $250 million per year.
As compared to low –rise buildings of the same type, high- rise buildings present very low fatalities. In-depth analyses of incidences in high-rise buildings have been undertaken by various researchers. Some of the memorable incidences include the MGM Grand hotel Fire where the total numbers of fatalities reported were 85 (Best & Demers, 1982), the bombing of the Oklahoma Federal building which resulted to 168 fatalities ((Lay, 2007).According to Ronchi, E.P. and Nilsson, D., (2013), the research in relation to high-rise buildings became an area of concern to safety committees who were responsible with codes in the 60s. During that time,( 1960s), the main issues that was much analysed was exit stairs of which formulas relating to minimum exit stair with and minimum total evacuation time were provided. However, in the 1980s and 1990s, much more significant work in the area of high-rise buildings was performed (Willander, S., 2009]. Much of these studies focused on how to apply model of hydraulic movements, having a consideration of behavioural factors in mind. Peacock, Averill and Kuligowski, (2011) assert that more recently, much great sense of awareness on the issues of hydraulic movement was raised by the World Trade Centre terrorist attack of 9/11. Infact, the event necessitated a much more assessment of the safety of high-rise buildings. According to Galea et al., (2010), it is important to provide robust ad vibrant means of egress and further undertake an investigation on the possible interaction between infrastructure procedures and the possible behaviour of occupants.
A number of concerns have been raised regarding the efficiency and adequacy of current safety procedures, regulations and emergency procedures in high-rise buildings. Some of the concerns relate to the kind of evacuation scenarios that should be designed in high-rise buildings, the egress components required or rather recommended to evacuate occupants in high-rise buildings, whether elevators are suitable for evacuating high rise buildings, design measures improvements to be employed inorder to boost the efficiency of egress . However, the above concerns lack specific and simple answers but the specifics of each type of building need to be taken into consideration. According to Kuligowski, Peacock and Averill, (2011), it is evident that there is still lack of knowledge and consensus in terms of the kinds of behavioural aspects occurring or rather taking place during evacuations in high-rise building
Specific recommendations regarding single aspects of the process of evacuation heavily rely on previous studies and analysis of single variables under investigation. It is for his particular reason that there is ardent need to undertake an investigation and review existing literature on some of the main variable affecting high-rise evacuations such as the components of egress ( stairs and elevators) and the possible strategies used , whether total evacuation, phased evacuation or defend-in-place.
Of particular interest is that there should be an in-depth analysis of the studies relating or rather concerning evacuation operations through the use of vertical transport and other methods to encourage evacuation through the use of elevators. There is also ardent need to undertake an investigation on whether the use of different egress component have been studied individually or if, in there near future, there are potential attempts of investigating the combination of various or rather different components f aggress. Different models of evacuation are often used in the process of safety design particularly in the context of a design approach that is performance based in nature. Infact, there is much need to undertake a review of the state-of-the-art of different tools available and whether they are applicable in high-rise buildings. Therefore, this analysis is an important and fundamental step to undertake an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the present or rather current aggress models and identifies some of the aspects that need further research.
Definition of a high-rise building
The National Fire Protection Association defines high-rise buildings as having a height greater than 75 feet when the measurement is taken from the lowest point a fire engine can access the highest story in the building. High-rise buildings include all the structures whose height presents serious challenges whenever there is a need for evacuation and extend higher beyond the reach of available fire-fighting machines. Generally, buildings with more than seven stories are usually considered as high-rise buildings ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"22uri12be5","properties":{"...