Emergency exits in existing buildings: assessing adaptation effectiveness according to current regulations through computer simulation

Abstract

Existing buildings must be adapted to the current fire safety standards in order to meet the minimum prescribed safety level for occupants. In this study, a building with a total area of 6,168 m² used for educational purposes was investigated. It is a 10-story building whose evacuation route is through an unenclosed staircase and a door on the first floor, which deviates from the current regulations. After the remodeling and adjustments, the building will have 3 new exits leading to the outside and an additional stairwell, resulting in a new area of 7,806 m². To evaluate the effectiveness of these changes, the analysis focused on the total evacuation time of the building population before and after the implementation of the adjustments. The analysis considered numerous occupancy scenarios and barriers. The results showed that bringing the building into compliance with current regulations reduced the total evacuation time by up to 49.8% and also contributed to better population distribution and less congestion, although the option to choose between different routes led to collisions among occupants. Thus, this study helped evaluate the efficiency of the requirements imposed by current regulations in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in the context of school buildings.