01624583

Component

How humans behave during evacuation is a popular research topic. Building evacuation in case of an emergency is usually accompanied by a considerable amount of physical and psychological stress. Changes in the environment such as loud noises or sudden darkness because of an electricity fallout could cause stress levels to rise. Usually stress has a negative effect on several mental functions, such as decision-making and problem-solving. Because these are functions needed during an evacuation it will probably also affect the egress time of people. This experimental research examines the effect of different stressful circumstances on the planning and problem-solving abilities and on egress time. The chosen stressful circumstances for this study are the sound of a fire alarm, the level of illumination (normal or dark) and the use of emergency exit signs. The most important conclusion is that the combination of loud noises, darkness and the lack of emergency exit signs has the most negative influence on egress time. Another conclusion is that the less successful individuals are in solving problems the more time they need to plan and solve certain problems. This information could be used to improve building designs and evacuation simulation models.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABR30 Standing Committee on Emergency Evacuations.

01618707

17-05328

English

15p

2017

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Decision making; Evacuation; Hazards and emergency operations; Problem solving; Stress (Psychology)

Egress time

Planning and Forecasting; Security and Emergencies; Transportation (General)

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-05328

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 12:06PM