Evacuation of children
General information
Project type: PhD Project
Funding: KESØ Project
PhD student: Aldis Run Larusdottir
Supervisor: Anne Dederichs
Time schedule: missing
Keywords: fire safety, evacuation models, able-bodied groups, heterogeneous population, children evacuation, walking speed, stair types, evacuation tests.
Project description
Predicting people’s actions and evacuation pattern has an increased importance since performance based fire codes have been implemented in Denmark, and around the world, in recent years.
Today’s models, regulations, and manuals are mainly based on studies on evacuation behavior of adults, who are able to evacuate unassisted (employment category 1-5). Literature provides few studies on children in the ages 0-6 years.
The aim of the project was to provide data on children´s evacuation and to bring focus to the subject. Methods include literature study, data collection and analyzing of data which will contribute to development of an evacuation model for children.
Focus has been given to young children and buildings where children represent the majority of occupants. As a part of the data collection a number of full scale evacuations (fire drills), in daycare centers for children, has been observed.
The project, which involved international collaboration with Sweden and Iceland, provided new and unique data and knowledge on the topic of emergency evacuation of children which can influence future guidelines and designs.
Among the projects findings, the following main aspects are of particular interest:
- New data on flow with respect to person density related to the age of the children.
- New data on children’s movement in stairs.
- New data on the effect of training on evacuation process and time.
- New data on the effectiveness of evacuation plans.