Lifts for evacuation - Human behaviour considerations

dc.contributor.authorHeyes, E.
dc.contributor.authorSpearpoint, M.J.
dc.date.accessioned2010-02-15T22:26:11Z
dc.date.available2010-02-15T22:26:11Z
dc.date.issued2009en
dc.description.abstractThe concept of using lifts for evacuation form high rise buildings in fires and other emergency events is gaining momentum around the world, with the recent inclusion of clauses in the International Building Code(IBC) to regulate the design of such lifts and a growing number of buildings, incorporation this new technology. To predict the time that a building will take to be fully evacuated in an emergency and to design lift systems capable of dealing with the demand, building designers need an understanding of the likely exiting behaviour of occupants. Due to the inherent difficulties of carrying out research in human behaviour, a number of approaches have been used to try to address these issues. These include carrying out a number of survey’s and comparing results to data from past fire events where the lifts have been used of evacuation The results from this work suggest that the split of occupants using the stairs or lifts to evacuate is governed predominantly by floor level of the occupant. In addition, it has been shown that it is unreasonable to expect that occupants will wait indefinitely for a lift to arrive in an emergency situation if they are given no information about the likely waiting time. The drop-off in the percentage of occupants that will continue to wait for a lift with increasing waiting time also appears to be dependent on floor height. It is expected that these results will allow building designers to make more realistic assumptions when designing evacuation strategies incorporating lifts. In addition, it is hoped that a better understanding of the reservations that building users may have about using lifts for evacuation in emergency situations will allow occupant training programmes to be developed to address these concerns.
dc.identifier.citationHeyes E, Spearpoint M J (2009) Lifts for evacuation - Human behaviour considerations. Cambridge, UK: 4th International Conference on Human Behaviour in Fire, 13-15 July 2009. 73-84.en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10092/3467
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherUniversity of Canterbury. Civil and Natural Resources Engineeringen
dc.rights.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10092/17651en
dc.subject.marsdenFields of Research::310000 Architecture, Urban Environment and Building::310200 Buildingen
dc.subject.marsdenFields of Research::290000 Engineering and Technology::299900 Other Engineering and Technology::299902 Combustion and fuel engineeringen
dc.subject.marsdenFields of Research::290000 Engineering and Technology::290800 Civil Engineering::290899 Civil engineering not elsewhere classifieden
dc.titleLifts for evacuation - Human behaviour considerationsen
dc.typeConference Contributions - Published
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