Safety assessment of a high-rise dormitory in case of fire

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to focus on the combination of fire- and agent-based modelling approaches to assess the level of safety of a multi-storeyed building case study.

Design/methodology/approach

For an existing building to be occupied such as the engineering student dormitory of Mons (Belgium), engineers must establish, among the other things, that the building affords a sufficient level of safety during fire incident. This can be verified in accordance with prescriptive- and performance-based methodologies. The performance-based approach consists on using simulation tools such as fire dynamics simulator with evacuation to ensure/verify the level of safety required. In this paper, a model case study was built and then various scenarios have been implemented to answer some safety questions.

Findings

For this building layout, the results demonstrate that combining different egress components (i.e. stairs and outdoor ladders) has a negative impact on the evacuation process than using only the stairs to evacuate the building; phased evacuation strategy will not necessarily lead to faster evacuation; adding fire doors in the stairs and between the floors has a beneficial effect on the evacuation process.

Originality/value

This case study proposes some recommendations about adapted evacuation strategy and investments to improve the safety of high-rise student’s dormitory in case of fire.

Citation

Rahouti, A., Datoussaïd, S. and Descamps, T. (2018), "Safety assessment of a high-rise dormitory in case of fire", International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 84-95. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJDRBE-10-2016-0039