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NAT L INST. OF STAND & TECH R.I.C.

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NBSIR 79-1738

EVACNET: Prototype Network

Optimization Models for

Building Evacuation

Richard L. Francis

Patsy B. Saunders

Operations Research Division

Center for Applied Mathematics

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D.C. 20234

October 1979

U S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE —QC

100

.1156

79-1738

1979

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

fionai Bureau of Stardgnts

JAN 2 9 1980

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NBSIR 79-1738

* a 4 EVACNET: PROTOTYPE NETWORK

OPTIMIZATION MODELS FOR

BUILDING EVACUATION

Richard L. Francis

Patsy B. Saunders

Operations Research Division

Center for Applied Mathematics

National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D.C. 20234

October 1979

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Juanita M. Kreps, Secretary

Luther H. Hodges, Jr., Under Secretary

Jordan J. Baruch, Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS, Ernest Ambler, Director

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 Introduction

2.0 Overview of Model

3.0 A Total Evacuation Model of the Administration Building at NBS

4.0 Computer Runs of Evacuation Scenarios

5.0 Computer Implementation

6.0 Conclusions and Next Steps

Appendix A: Graphical Summary of Runs

Appendix B: A Simple Graphical Procedure for Estimating the Minimum

Time to Evacuate the Building

Appendix C: Listing of SETUP, CHECK, AND POSTPRO
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to acknowledge the information on building

evacuation, flow rates, and capacities provided by J. L. Pauls of the

National Research Council of Canada. We also appreciate the encouragement and support of B. H. Nelson and his staff in the NBS Center for

Fire Research. Finally, we thank R. L. Paulson for her comments on

earlier versions of this work.
ABSTRACT

This report presents the results of a pilot project conducted to explore

how the evacuation and "evacuability" of buildings can be analyzed with

the aid of mathematical network flow optimization models. As a research

vehicle, Building 101, an eleven-floor building located on the Gaithersburg,

Maryland campus of the National Bureau of Standards, has been studied;

mathematical models pertinent to evaluating that building under a number

of different circumstances have been developed and solved on the computer.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

This report presents the results of a pilot project conducted to explore

how the evacuation and "evacuability" of buildings can be analyzed with

the aid of mathematical network flow optimization models. As a research

vehicle, Building 101, an eleven-floor building located on the Gaithersburg,

Maryland campus of the National Bureau of Standards, has been studied;

mathematical models pertinent to evacuating that building under a number

of different circumstances have been developed and solved on the computer.

The experience gained in studying network models of the evacuation of

Building 101 has identified a number of research and development tasks

which we believe can yield a powerful and broadly applicable methodology

for the analytical study of building evacuation and its dependence on

building design, operation, and codes.

We have tried in this report to make our results as accessible as possible,

intentionally avoiding mathematics and relying heavily upon network drawings

for motivation. In Section 2.0 we develop and explain necessary modeling

ideas, using a simple three-floor model of a building for expository purposes. Section 3.0 describes Building 101 in some detail. Section 4.0

presents the results of a sequence of computer runs representing the evacuation of Building 101 under various conditions, and describes the conclusions

resulting from this computational experience. Section 5.0 describes the

computer codes utilized in the solution process. In that section we assume

that the reader is acquainted with FORTRAN. Sample program inputs and outputs are given using, for expository purposes, the same simple three-floor
building model described in Section 2.0. In the last section we draw

general conclusions, identify key limitations of this modeling approach,

attempt to give an overview of the modeling process we have used, and

discuss the natural next steps in this applied research area. Appendix A

is a graphical summary of the runs made on Building 101. Appendix B is the

description of "A Simple Graphical Procedure for Estimating the Minimum

Time to Evacuate the Building" which we have developed as a supplement

to the rather detailed network flow models discussed elsewhere in our

report. Computer listings of the programs developed during this study

appear in Appendix C.

2
2.0 OVERVIEW OF MODEL

The purpose of this report is to present the results of a pilot project

conducted to analyze the evacuation of buildings by means of computerized

network flow optimization models. A major effort during this study involved constructing such an evacuation model of Building 101, an elevenfloor building located at the Gaithersburg, Maryland campus of the National

Bureau of Standards. A "skeletal" network model of the building has been

constructed which represents the following entities (as well as paths

of movement between them): workplaces, halls, doors between workplaces

and halls, stairwells, doors between halls and stairwells, doors between

stairwells and the lobby, and lobby doors. The model determines by itself

an evacuation routing of the people in the building so as to minimize the

time to evacuate the building. Further, the model is dynamic, in the

sense that it represents the pattern of the building evacuation over time.

Just as one might imagine photographing an actual building evacuation

using automatic time-lapse cameras which take pictures of relevant evacuation activities over regular time intervals, so the model depicts the evacuation of the building as it changes over time: time is divided into discrete time periods, and the model indicates the changes in the evacuation

status during each time period, as well as the evacuation status at the

end of each time period.

Data for the model include such things as the numbers of people in workplaces prior to evacuation, stairwell flow-rate capacities, hall and lobby

flow-rate capacities, as well as static capacities such as the total number

3
of people a hall, workplace, or stairwell can accommodate. By making

repeated computer runs of the model with different data sets, "what if"

questions of interest, such as the following, can readily be addressed:

e What if we want to determine the minimum time to evacuate the

building, as well as routes people could follow so as to evacuate

the building in the minimum time?

• What if there is a fire on the tenth floor?

• What if we could use "express elevators" to facilitate evacuating

the building?

• What if a fire blocks a stairwell and/or some halls?

® What if we add more building exits?

• What if we add more stairwells?

• What if we want to identify evacuation bottlenecks?

The fact that the model is computerized greatly facilitates asking such "what

if" questions: answering them usually entails only changing model data

and then making a computer run. Such data changes can often be made by

an operator sitting at a remote computer terminal. Computerization permits

answering such questions quickly, and is particularly useful when the

model is large enough to be unwieldy if dealt with manually. Such a

computer model has clear advantages over such other approaches as the use

of graphical models, pictorial representations of building evacuation,

and actual trial building evacuations: the computer model is often quicker,

cheaper, can handle larger problems, and greatly facilitates the comparison

of many alternatives. In the long run, it is hoped that such computer

models will facilitate the study of the interrelationships of building

4
evacuation with building design, building redesign, and building evacuability, and also will lead to improvements in design for evacuation.

To provide some insight into computer network flow models, it seems appropriate to examine briefly the questions of why such models were initially

developed, and what uses they have found. The initial development of

network flow optimization was by Hitchcock [11] and Koopmans [13], but the

development did not really take wing until work by Ford and Fulkerson

[6] at the RAND corporation. Ford and Fulkerson were presented with

the problem of determining the capacity (the bottleneck) of a railroad

network. The model they constructed to address the problem consisted

of "arcs" and "vertices", where each "vertex" represented the intersection

of two or more rail lines, and each "arc" represented that portion of the

rail line joining two adjacent rail intersections. Each arc had a capacity,

e.g., box cars per time period, and could also have a unit cost, e.g.,

the cost to move a box car the length of the rail segment represented by

the arc. Using their model it was possible to compute the maximum "flow"

through the network, that is, the maximum number of box cars which could

be sent through the network during the time period of interest. This

maximum flow in turn identified network bottlenecks: arcs whose capacities

placed a binding restriction upon the maximum flow.

Subsequently network flow optimization models have become of substantial

economic importance [3], [8]. One generic model of interest is the socalled transshipment model, a good introductory discussion of which is

5
given by Wagner [23]. Figure 1A depicts an example transshipment model,

with known amounts available at nodes (circles) representing "origins,"

e.g., warehouses, and known demands for goods at nodes representing

"destinations," e.g., customer locations, with arcs representing travel

routes between nodes. Goods may either be shipped directly from origins

to destinations (a possibility not illustrated in Figure 1A) , or be

transshipped via nodes representing intermediate points. Each arc of the

network may have a travel cost and/or travel time, and a flow capacity.

The transshipment problem is then to determine how all of the goods available at the origins should be routed through the network so as to meet

demands at the destinations, and to minimize the total transportation

cost (or transportation time, or some other relevant criterion) without

exceeding arc capacities. A variation of the problem is to compute the

maximum amount of goods which can be shipped via the network from origins

to destinations. It is worth emphasizing that the important distinguishing

aspect of such network problems is the incorporation of an obj ective

function , such as total transportation cost, or total flow, which is to

be optimized. Given the data, it often may not be difficult to determine

by inspection some means of shipping goods from origins to destinations.

It can be nontrivial, however, to determine an optimum pattern of shipments. To solve such problems a variety of optimization algorithms (well

defined computational procedures) have been developed, [4], [6], [15]

and computer programs [3], [8] of such algorithms are readily available

to solve routinely problems having 50,000 to 100,000 arcs.

Given this account of the transshipment problem, it becomes evident that

a building evacuation problem may be represented in a similar manner. As

6
Figure 1-A EXAMPLE TRANSSHIPMENT NETWORK

7
Figure IB indicates, instead of warehouses one has workplaces; instead

of goods one has people; instead of destinations one has exit doors (or

"safe" floors, or elevators) . The building itself may be represented as

a network. Data for arcs may include arc capacities, e.g., stairwell

capacities in people per time period, arc travel times, e.g., the time to

descend a flight of stairs; and, if appropriate, arc costs, e.g.,

the danger per person of being in some specific building location at a

given time during the evacuation period. By means of such a model one

can then determine, for example, the routes that people could take from

the origins, through the building, to the destinations, so as to minimize

the total time to evacuate the building.

It should be noted here that network flow optimization models are closely

related to the "hydraulic models" of traditional and ongoing interest for

studying building evacuation, and share the limitations of these models,

such as those pointed out by Stahl and Archea [21], Stahl [22], and Pauls

[18]. In particular, network models are not behavioral in nature: they

make no attempt to describe the behavior of individuals in the event of

a fire. Rather they demonstrate a course of action which, if taken, could

lead to an evacuation of a building in an "appropriate" manner. Such

models provide a benchmark, or standard of comparison, in the sense that

they tell how quickly a building can be evacuated if the actual building

evacuation pattern is the same as that of the model. One can think of

such a model as recommending a desirable course of action; to be encouraged

by suitable displays, instructions and training for the building occupants,

etc. Behavioral models and network flow models are complementary, in that

8
WORK PLACES

WITH PEOPLE

HALLS &

STAIRWELLS

EXITS

Figure 1-B EXAMPLE BUILDING EVACUATION NETWORK

9
each type of model has the potential of providing information the other

cannot yield. For example, network flow models only address the question

of how people might move in a building given that they decide to evacuate.

To determine how long it might take occupants of a building to decide

to evacuate the building once they hear an alarm, or to address the question

of whether or not they will in fact decide to evacuate, one must turn to

behavioral approaches. On the other hand, once people begin to move during

a building evacuation, if they behave rationally, there is considerable

reason to believe network models can be of use in predicting how long

it will take to evacuate the building, as well as to suggest actual

evacuation flow patterns.

Some Introductory Network Flow Models

Prior to discussing the modeling of Building 101, it is useful to obtain

insight via some simpler models. Suppose, as an example, that 300 people

are to evacuate via a stairwell, that the flow rate of the stairwell is 60

people per minute, and we wish to compute the time to evacuate the stairwell

subsequent to the first person leaving the stairwell. This time, of

course, is just 300/60 =* 5 minutes. Figure 2 illustrates a means of interpreting this situation as a network flow problem. There are seven nodes,

with each node numbered for a time period of a minute in length. (Allowing

more than five time periods permits zero flows to be illustrated.) Also,

there are six arcs, with the arrow-heads indicating flow directions. The

"flow" in the horizontal arcs indicates the number of people remaining to

be evacuated at the end of each time period, and the "flow" in the vertical

arcs indicates the number of people evacuating during a time period. Thus,

10
Figure 2

Figure 3

EXAMPLE OF NETWORK INTERPRETATION OF FLOW EQUATION

FLOOR 3

WORKPLACE

3

HALL 3

STAIRWELL

3

V

WORK- STAIRPLACE HALL 2 WELL

FLOOR 2 2 2

• —M> - >

WORKPLACE LOBBY

FLOOR 1

1 — w

EXAMPLE OF FLOW PATTERN IN SIMPLE THREE FLOOR BUILDING

11
at the end of time period 1, 240 people remain to be evacuated, 60

people being evacuated during time period 1. At the end of time period

2, 180 people remain to be evacuated, 60 being evacuated during time

period 2, etc. One can think of the problem literally as a flow problem

in which the input flow is 300, the total of all the output flows is 300,

and the output of 300 is to be obtained in as few time periods as possible.

Note also that for each node the total flow into the node is equal to the

total flow out of the node; a "conservation of flow" condition: for example

the total flow into node 2 is 240, while the total flow out of node 2

is 60 + 180 = 240. Of course, for such a simple example it is unnecessary

to have a network flow model in order to obtain the evacuation time result of 5 minutes; the real point of the example is to illustrate how

the traditional flow computation of dividing the total number of people

by the flow rate per time period may be represented as a network flow

model. In addition, as will be seen, models such as this one occur as

submodels ("holdover arcs") in subsequent more involved network flow

models

.

Pursuant to constructing such a more general model, consider Figure 3,

which represents a simple three story building with one stairwell. Each

floor has a workplace, each of the upper two floors has a hall, and

stairwells connect the upper two floors with the lobby, which is used

to exit from the building. In actuality one would expect each floor

to have more than one workplace, and so the "workplaces" of the model

may be viewed as composites of actual workplaces. Let us suppose a

12
time period of ten seconds in length is chosen. Figure 4 then represents

a network model of the building, with the rotation W, H, SW, and L denoting

workplace, hall, stairwell, and lobby, respectively; subscripts indicate

floor number. There are 20 people at workplace 1, and 16 people at each

of workplaces 2 and 3; all 52 people are to leave the building via the

exit. The data in Figure 4 indicate that it takes 1 time period to

travel from the workplace to

the hall on floors 2 and 3, and 1 time period to travel from the workplace

to the lobby on floor 1. It also takes 1 time period to travel from the

hall to the stairwell on floors 2 and 3, and two time periods to descend

one floor in the stairwell. The numbers in parentheses on the arcs represent upper bounds on flows per time period. At most 10 people can travel

per time period from the workplace to the hall on floors 2 and 3, and

at most 10 people per time period can travel from workplace 1 to the lobby.

At most 8 people per time period can travel from the hall to the stairwell

on floors 2 and 3, while at most 8 people per time period can travel from

the lobby to the exit. The numbers in parentheses above the nodes represent upper bounds on the number of people who can be in the location represented by the node at any point in time; in other words, these numbers

represent static capacities. For example, at most 20 people can ever

be in workplace 3, at most 50 people can ever be in hall 3, at most 50

people can ever be in the stairwell between floors 3 and 2, at most 50

people can ever be in the stairwell between floors 2 and 1, and at most

40 people can ever be in the lobby. Thus it can be seen that the model

really has two different types of capacities associated with it: while

node capacities are static capacities , the arc capacities are dynamic

capacities , since they are capacities per time period.

13
Figure 4 STATIC NETWORK MODEL OF FLOW PATTERN IN SIMPLE THREE FLOOR BUILDING

(W.: WORKPLACE i. H : HALL i. SW : STAIRWELL i. L: LOBBY)

i i

14
In order to obtain the dynamic network flow model of interest , the static

network model of Figure 4 is expanded over time to get the dynamic network

flow model shown in Figure 5* Examining Figure 5» one sees that for each

node of Figure 4 there is a row of nodes in Figure 5 S one per time period,

with holdover arcs connecting the adjacent nodes in each row, and having

the same capacities as the associated node of the static network. The

holdover arcs in a row play a role much as in the first simple network

flow example of Figure 2. (For example, flows in the five horizontal arcs

in the top row represent the number of people remaining in workplace 3

at the end of the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth time period

respectively.) The diagonal movement arcs in Figure 5 represent "copies"

of arcs of the static network, and have the same capacities as the arcs

they represent. (For example, the topmost set of diagonal arcs between

workplace 3 and hall 3 are for "movement" flows from workplace 3 to hall 3

during periods 1 through 6 respectively. ) Rote that arcs between nodes

representing stairwell 3 and nodes representing stairwell 2 cut across two

time periods, since it takes two time periods to traverse a stairwell.

Likewise, arcs between nodes representing stairwell 2 and nodes representing the lobby, and arcs between nodes representing the lobby and nodes

representing the exit, cut across two time periods.

In order to obtain insight into the dynamic network, it is first helpful

to consider an example where there is only one person in the building, and

trace an actual route this person follows in the network from his starting

point to the exit. We choose the route so as to illustrate a number of

15
X X X

10 11 12 13 TIME PERIODS

Figure 5 DYNAMIC NETWORK VERSION OF FIGURE 4 STATIC NETWORK

16
network features: there is no reason to think a person would actually

follow such a route in evacuating the building. The dotted path in Figure

6 identifies the route followed by the person. The person, who is originally

in workplace 3, remains in the workplace for periods 1 and 2, and then

travels into the hall during period 3. He remains in the hall during

period 4, and travels from the hall to the third floor stairwell during

period 5. He then remains in the stairwell during period 6, prior to descending in the stairwell from floor 3 to floor 2 during periods 7 and 8.

Next he remains in the stairwell during period 9, and then descends the

stairwell from the second to the first floor during periods 10 and 11. He

then travels from the lobby to the exit during periods 12 and 13. Thus

by the end of period 13 the person is outside the building.

Next, we consider a more general example. Figure 7 shows an actual

evacuation pattern imposed upon the network of Figure 5. Of the 16

people originally in workplace 3, 10 travel to hall 3 during period 1,

while 6 remain in the workplace during period 1, and travel to the hall

during period 2. Of the 10 people who travel to the hall during period

1, 8 travel to the stairwell during period 2, while 2 people remain in

the hall to combine with the 6 who traveled into the hall during time

period 2, giving 8 who travel from the hall to the stairwell during time

period 3. Then, during periods 3 and 4, 8 people travel to the stairwell

on the second floor, while 8 also travel between the two stairwells

during period 4 and 5. Note that the flow pattern for the second floor

is identical to that of the third floor. Observing the arcs representing

travel from stairwell 2 to the lobby, note that there is a flow of 8 in

each of the two-period intervals 3 and 4, 4 and 5,

17
Figure 6 EXAMPLE EVACUATION ROUTE OF ONE PERSON SHOWN BY DOTTED PATH

18
TIME PERIODS

Figure 7 FIRST DYNAMIC VERSION OF FIGURE 4 STATIC NETWORK

WITH COMPUTED FLOW PATTERN

19
5 and 6, and 6 and 7* Observing the flow from workplace 1, we find that

10 people leave workplace 1 during period 1, 10 people remain and then

leave workplace 1 during period 2 . The first 10 people travel to the

exit during periods 2 and 3« Note that the horizontal arcs between

nodes representing the exit act in effect as a turnstile, developing a

cumulative count of the number of people exiting by the end of each

time period: 10 people exit by the end of period 3 S 20 by the end of

period 4, 20 by the end of period 5 (no one exits during period 5)> 28

by the end of period 6, etc. By the end of period 9 all 52 people

exit, so that the building is evacuated in 90 seconds.

An examination of the flows from lobby nodes to exit nodes in Figure 7

identifies obvious "bottlenecks". One sees that arcs with capacities of

10 between workplace 1 and the lobby caused the flows of 10 between the

lobby and exit nodes, while flows in arcs from stairwell nodes caused the

flows of 8 from the lobby to the exit . For evacuation of the second and

third floors, the stairwell flow rate capacities caused the bottlenecks,

in the sense that more people could evacuate the building per time period

if the stairwell flow rates were greater than 8. Figure 7 also illustrates

a number of other properties of network flow models. Note that the model

does not identify individual people; it only counts numbers of people.

Thus, for example, of the initial l6 people in workplace 3, there is no

way to tell which 6 remained in workplace 3 during period 1, and which 10

traveled to the hall. Likewise, of the 44 people who exit by the end of

time period 8, the only way to identify where the 44 people come from is

20
to "backtrack" the flows resulting in these 44 people; for this example

one sees that 20 of the people come from workplace 1, 16 from workplace

2, and 8 from workplace 3. Such backtracking is simple for this small

example, but can become onerous for a problem having, say, thousands of

arcs. As a final note on this example, the indicated flows were in fact

determined by a transshipment algorithm due to Bradley, Brown, and Graves

[3]; Section 5.0 spells out the manner in which the problem is set up

to be solved as a transshipment problem.

Figure 8 illustrates a variation of the problem of Figure 7, with the

initial numbers of people in workplaces 1, 2, and 3 now being 35, 26,

and 26 respectively. This example illustrates stairwell "merging",

as well as the increased waiting flows in holdover arcs due to having

more people in the building. For example, for the third node from the

left for stairwell 2, 8 people arrive from stairwell 3, and merge with

8 more from the hall on floor 2; of the total of 16, 8 go to the lobby,

while the other 8 remain in the stairwell. By examining the cumulative

flows on the exit holdover arcs, one sees that all 87 people are not

evacuated from the building until the end of time period 12, giving a

building evacuation time of 120 seconds. This example problem was solved

by the same algorithm as the previous example, and required only a change

of 4 data cards of the input data deck used to solve the previous example.

It has been mentioned earlier that algorithms which solve the transshipment

problem find a flow pattern which minimizes total cost. To this point no

mention has been made of the use of arc costs in conjunction with the flow

21
X X

10 11 12 13 TIME PERIODS

Figure 8 SECOND DYNAMIC VERSION OF FIGURE 4 STATIC NETWORK

WITH COMPUTED FLOW PATTERN

22
patterns shown in Figures 7 and 8. A manner in which the costs may be

assigned is illustrated in Figure 9, showing unit costs (costs per person)

attached to diagonal movement arcs from the lobby to the exit, so that

it is more expensive to exit in later time periods than in earlier time

periods; the situation is exactly analogous to having a turnstile at the

exit and charging people more to exit at a later period than at an earlier

period. The algorithm which solves the problem determines a flow pattern

that will evacuate the people so as to minimize the total amount the

people would be charged. (An equivalent way to think of the turnstile

feature is that people are paid more to evacuate in earlier time periods

than in later time periods, and the algorithm determines a flow pattern

that evacuates the people so as to maximize the total amount the people

are paid.)

For the examples of Figures 7 and 8, all arc costs except turnstile arc

costs are zero. Arc costs should always be zero except when there is

good reason not to be. For example, if it becomes increasingly more dangerous, say, to remain in workplace 3 as time progresses, one might want

to assign positive costs to holdover arcs representing workplace 3 in later

time periods. As a second example, suppose it is of interest to model

a situation where there is not enough time to evacuate everyone from the

building: one way to do so is to construct an arc from the last holdover

node copy for each hall to the last exit node copy and assign a cost to each

such arc which is larger than any turnstile cost. Since the model chooses

an evacuation flow pattern which minimizes total cost, it will route no

more people via these arcs than is necessary. In effect, the flows in

these extra arcs represent people who were trapped in the building.

23
10 10 0 8 8 8 8

EXIT FLOW

TIME

PERIOD

DURING

PERIOD

UNIT FLOW

COST

PERIOD

COST

CUMULATIVE

COST

3 10 6 60 60

4 10 8 80 140

5 0 10 0 0

6 8 12 96 236

7 8 14 112 348

8 8 16 128 476

9 8 18 144 620

Figure 9 EXAMPLE OF USE OF TURNSTILE

24
It should now be apparent that once a dynamic network model is constructed,

modeling variations of the problem of interest can often be accomplished

by small changes in the problem data only. For example, capacities could

be changed in the dynamic network’ s arcs which represent replications of arcs

between stairwell nodes, in order to introduce some variability in stairwell

flow rates. More drastically, an arc can simply be removed. In fact,

with reference to Figures 7 and 8, one can see there are more holdover

arcs for floor 1 than for floor 2, and more holdover arcs for floor 2 than

for floor 3. Extra holdover arcs could be included in the model for floors

2 and 3, but would be of no use in the example problems solved, as having

extra holdover arcs would not permit quicker building evacuation. One

might also want to omit arcs to preclude certain flows after specified

time periods. For example, if a network model of a building includes two

stairwells, it is easy to "shut down" a stairwell part way through an

evacuation being modeled, in order to see what the effect would be on the

building evacuation: alternatively, one stairwell capacity could be made

less than the other to represent a situation where use of a stairwell by

firemen causes the stairwell to be partially blocked.

As will be seen subsequently, to incorporate additional features into

network models of building evacuation is often quite direct. There can be

multiple stairwells, multiple workplaces, multiple halls, elevators (provided they run on fixed schedules which are multiples of the length of a

time period), and multiple exits. Further, it is not essential (although

it is simplest) to have every time period be of the same duration.

25
A final point to keep in mind about dynamic network models is that to

model a large building for a substantial number of time periods the use

of a computer is essential. For example, the eleven floor, fifty-eight

time period model of Building 101 to be discussed subsequently has 5»5*+3

arcs and 2,591 nodes: the dynamic network flow models discussed to this

point are really quite small by comparison to the Building 101 model.

At this point it seems useful to formalize some of the preceding notions,

and present general procedures for constructing both static and dynamic

network flow models for building evacuation.

STATIC MODEL CONSTRUCTION

The static model is a direct network representation of the building, consisting of nodes (represented by circles) and directed arcs (represented

by arrows) from one node to another. Nodes in the static network represent

building locations of interest, such as workplaces, halls, stairwells,

lobbies, and exits. Each node has a static capacity ; the maximum number

of people ever allowable at the location the node represents. Nodes are

partitioned into three mutually exclusive and exhaustive classes: origins ,

intermediate nodes , and destinations . Origins represent sources of people

to be evacuated, with the sources containing (known) specific numbers of

people at the initiation of the evacuation activity being modeled. An

origin node is identified by having exactly one arc pointing into the node,

with the input into the arc being the number of people at the origin to

26
be evacuated. As an example, with reference to Figure 5, the origin nodes

are W^, W^, and W^. An intermediate node is a node which is neither

an origin nor a destination; each intermediate node has at least one arc

from another node leading into it, and at least one arc leading out to

another node. A destination node represents a location to which people are

to be evacuated, and may be thought of as an exit. In the event there is

only one exit, this exit is, of course, the destination, and should have

exactly one arc pointing out of it, whose flow is the total number of people

available at all the origins; Figure 4 illustrates a static model with only

one destination. In the event there is more than one exit and a specified

number of people is to evacuate via each exit, then each exit node becomes

a destination and has an arc pointing out of it whose output flow is the

number of people who are to use the exit: the total number of people evacuating

via all the destinations must be equal to the total number of people coming

from the origins. In the event there is more than one exit and the number of

people to use each exit need not be specified, construct one additional

node, which may be thought of as a "super destination," run an arc from

each exit node to the super destination, and construct an arc pointing

out of the super destination whose flow is the total number of people

coming from all the destinations. Figures 10 and 11 illustrate the use

of exit nodes with specified outputs, and the use of a super destination,

respectively. Note that Figures 10 and 11 illustrate models of buildings

with two stairwells. These models can easily be extended to represent

buildings with more than three floors simply by replicating the model

structure for floor 3 and by specifying the appropriate number of people

for each additional floor.

27
Figure 10 EXAMPLE STATIC MODEL WITH TWO STAIRWELLS & EXITS, & SPECIFIED EXIT OUTPUTS

28
100

Figure 11 EXAMPLE STATIC MODEL WITH TWO STAIRWELLS & EXITS, & SUPER DESTINATION

29
A directed arc leads from one node to another node whenever it is reasonable to permit movement from the first location to the second, in the

direction indicated by the arrow on the arc. Each directed arc represents

one-way movement, and is entirely analogous to a one-way street. (It is

permissible, as illustrated in Figure 2, to have two one-way arcs between

two nodes, with the two arcs having opposite directions; such a situation

is analogous to having a two-way street with one lane for each direction.)

Each arc has the following data associated with it: the two nodes it

joins; the arc traversal time (the number of time periods it takes one

person to traverse the distance between the two locations the two nodes

represent); the arc dynamic capacity (the number of people who can traverse

the arc in one time period); the arc cost. When no cost is associated

with traversing an arc, the arc cost should be zero. Generally, arc costs

in the static network should be zero, unless they have a very real and

direct physical meaning.

Other than zero arc costs, all the data associated with the arcs, as well

as the static node capacities, should be positive integers . This condition

that the data be positive integers is a requirement of the computer program

used to solve the dynamic model.

DYNAMIC MODEL CONSTRUCTION

The crucial step in constructing a network flow model which is solvable

as a transshipment model is the construction of the dynamic network model

from the static network model.

30
Suppose the dynamic model is to have T time periods, where T would

normally be chosen so that everyone could be evacuated from the building

in T time periods. For each static node, say node s, construct T + 1

copies of node s, placed in a row and numbered 0, 1, ..., T - 1, T

consecutively from left to right. Between any two adjacent node copies

of node s, numbered say j and j + 1, construct a holdover arc from

copy j to copy j + 1 whose capacity is the same as that of the static

node s. For each static node which is an origin, let node copy 0 of

the static node also be an origin, with the same flow input. For each

static node which is a destination, let node copy T of the static node

also be a destination, with the same arc flow output.

For each static directed arc, say from static node i to static node k,

and having traversal time p (a positive integer), and for every integer

t between 0 and T - p, construct a (directed) movement arc copy in the

dynamic network which runs from copy t of node i to copy t + p of node

k. As an example, if the static arc A runs from node 12 to node 30 in

the static network, and has a traversal time of p

= 2, and if T = 100,

the movement-arc copies of A would run from copy 0 of node 12 to copy 2

of node 30, copy 1 of node 12 to copy 3 of node 30, ..., copy 97 of

node 12 to copy 99 of node 30, and copy 98 of node 12 to copy 100 of

node 30. The capacity of each movement arc is the same as the capacity

of the arc it copies in the static network (except for the case where it

is intended to permit the capacities of the arc copies to change over

time). The costs of movement arcs should normally be zero, except for

turnstile arcs, or when flow is to be precluded in an arc by assigning

the arc a prohibitively high arc cost.

31
Once all of the arcs of the dynamic model have been constructed, it is

easy to use the copy numbers of the nodes at the beginning and end of each

arc to identify the time period(s) during which there can be a flow in the

arc. For example, if a holdover arc is from copy t of node s to copy t + 1

of node s, whatever flow there is in the holdover arc occurs during

period t + 1. If a movement arc is from copy t of one node to copy t + p

of another node, whatever flow there is in the movement arc occurs

during periods t + l through t + p.

After the dynamic model is constructed, costs may be assigned to turnstiles,

as illustrated previously, in such a way as to minimize the total time to

evacuate the building. In situations where there is more than one turnstile, care should be taken that all costs assigned during any given period

to turnstiles are the same, regardless of the choice of the turnstile.

Otherwise the "cheaper" turnstiles will receive disproportionately high use.

Figure 12 illustrates the construction of a dynamic network model from

the static network model of Figure 1+. With reference to Figure 12, it is

convenient to refer to the arcs with slashes through them as "inessential"

arcs. Such arcs are inessential in the sense that they may be deleted

without changing the model, as either no flow can be put into an inessential

arc, or any flow put into an inessential arc can never reach a destination.

Note that deleting the inessential arcs from the network of Figure 12 gives

the network of Figure 5: it should be clear that the two networks are

equivalent, in the sense that they both have the same set of possible

evacuation flow patterns. While inessential arcs may be deleted, if a

32
NODE COPY NUMBER

Figure 12 DYNAMIC NETWORK VERSION OF FIGURE 4 STATIC NETWORK

WITH INESSENTIAL ARCS

33
dynamic model has a large number of arcs, say 30,000, it would be a nontrivial undertaking to go through and delete all the inessential arcs, even

if the deletion is accomplished by means of a computer program. However,

if the same model is to be used to make many computer runs, then the effort

entailed in deleting inessential arcs may be justified by the consequent

reduction in computer run times. It should also be noted, in any event,

that when a dynamic network model has a large number of arcs, one would

use a computer program to construct it from the static network: the procedure stated above for constructing a dynamic network model from a static

network model would not be difficult to program.

Another aspect of using the dynamic network model is the appropriate choice

of the duration of a time period. To model a building evacuation lasting

10 minutes in total, for example, would require 60 ten-second time periods,

but only 30 twenty-second time periods. By choosing a smaller time period

duration, additional model precision is gained, at the cost of having to

work with a model with more arcs. Generally, it seems a good idea to choose

the duration of a time period to be as large as possible without sacrificing

model realism. However, it should be realized that such a choice is to

some extent judgemental, and is highly problem-specific. For example, if

for a problem of interest the stairwell flow rate is 0.7 people per second,

then in order to work with integer data the length of a time period would

have to be at least ten seconds.

34
3.0 A TOTAL EVACUATION MODEL OF THE

ADMINISTRATION BUILDING AT NBS

This section is devoted to the construction of a total evacuation model

of Building 101, the Administration Building of the National Bureau of

Standards. The building is an eleven-floor building on the Gaithersburg,

Maryland campus of the National Bureau of Standards. It was chosen as

a convenient study vehicle to explore the applicability of network flow

optimization models to building evacuation, and not because it is itself

of any special interest in that context. While the building is perhaps

among the simplest for which the construction of a network flow optimization model may be worthwhile, it is clear that experience gained

in modeling Building 101 will facilitate the modeling of more complicated

buildings.

In what follows in this section, we describe Building 101, present the

static model of the building, discuss how the corresponding dynamic model

is obtained, present summaries of a number of computer runs representing

evacuation of the building under various conditions, and discuss the

implications of the computer-run results.

In addition to floors 2 through 11, Building 101 contains a number of

service functions on the first floor, such as auditoria, meeting rooms,

a cafeteria, and a library. The building also has an extensive basement

floor containing a number of services. Our model represents only floors

2 through 11 together with that part of the first floor which would

actually be utilized during a building evacuation. Another reason for

not modeling all the details of the first floor is that the lobby is two

35
floors high and, in addition, an unoccupied floor containing the heating

and air conditioning systems lies immediately "below the second floor.

Thus by the time people from the second floor begin to reach the first

floor during an evacuation, many of the people on the first floor could

already be outside the building.

Figure 13 shows the portion of the first floor of Building 101 which is

of interest, the lobby, a crosswalk corridor ending in doors opening

onto a crosswalk exit (the crosswalk connects Building 101 to an adjacent

building. Building 225), and the "personnel corridor," which connects the

lobby and the crosswalk corridor. (This last is the corridor onto which

the offices of the Bureau's Personnel Division open.) Note that the

lobby has four ("front") exit doors on its east side, and two ("side")

exit doors on the north side. In addition, four elevators load and unload

via the lobby. Further, one of the two stairwells of Building 101, called

Stairwell A for convenience, opens onto the lobby. The second stairwell,

called Stairwell B, opens onto the personnel corridor.

Figure lU presents a rough sketch of the hall of a typical floor, floor 3,

of Building 101. Note that the hall is roughly in the shape of an L,

with the four elevator doors lying in the short leg of the L, and the two

stairwell doors lying along the south side of the long leg of the L. The

total floor space in the hall is about 1,650 square feet (153.3 square

meters), of which about IT 5 square feet ( 16.26 square meters) is directly

in front of the elevator doors. Some halls on other floors, particularly

floors 6, 7, 8, 9» and 11, have less space than floor 3, due to the

36
N <

SIDE

DOORS

FRONT

DOORS

RECEPTION DESK &

DISPLAY AREA

ELEVATOR

DOORS H PISTAIRWELL

A DOOR

/

ccO

D

cc

0

c

o

o

CROSSWALK

DOORS

TJ—

1 "l

)[ STAIRWELL

\

B DOOR

COURTYARD

Figure 13 ROUGH SKETCH OF PART OF FIRST FLOOR OF BUILDING 101

37
Figure 14 ROUGH SKETCH OF THIRD FLOOR HALL OF BUILDING 101

38
existence of offices at the west end of the floor. Although not shown

in the drawing, each of the floors 2 through 11 has offices on both sides

of the long leg of the L, with the depth of each office being about 17

f eet (5.18 m. )

.

Figure 15 presents the basic static network flow model of Building 101,

and also shows the number of people on each floor. The first page of

Figure 15 represents floors 2 through 11, while the second page represents

that part of the first floor which is of interest here. The actual offices

on each floor are modeled as one or more composite work centers, each

k

with a specified number of people. Where the distribution of people is

reasonably uniform throughout the floor, we use only one composite work

center, e.g., Workcenter 3 (W^) on floor 3. In some instances where the

distribution of people on a floor is skewed, with more people on the west

end than the east, there are two composite work centers as, for example,

on floor 6, with one workcenter situated between the two stairwells (W^)

,

the other (WC^) at the west end of the floor. We believe the representation of each floor's offices by only one or two composite workcenters

is adequate for our purposes.

The model assumes that during an evacuation, people in a workplace will

first move into the adjacent hall. For example, movement from W, will be

b

into the middle part of the sixth-floor hall (H,), while movement from WC^

o 6

Determined from office rosters (name tags near office doors) and inquiries;

absenteeism and visitors were not considered in these analyses.

39
fao) _ . (4o) fao)

(so)

:l.

[7,2] x C7> 23

fag) Csr.iVr , s ft»>

( SWaJ^I^I ^‘'"° ti ‘*’^ (

SWBio)

ft 2]

c

fe°)

SWA,

CV]

c

[7,2]

22_*/vv?\(4 0

am ra .r$*>

L7, z]

^

SWA; SW37

(^7),-^' 0

'^°P)

C7A(^

32-^

-Q?) [8o,iTr^ _ 6?)

SWB,

f3o) (20)

"" 'NpVl

HCsH wc?

ft°) >-<17, '1

(3o)

HCa WWO

J>0

hc, Mwc7

hg6 HWC

eJ

SWB,

33

O) risyio! v / N &») a] A^o)

f SWA4 «—

f H &i,al

fro)

ft,*]

SWB.

^

/V

°Vai,a3

Q*k

m

The symbol [x,y]

:

next to an arc gives

as x the arc capacity

in people per time

period, and as y the arc transit time (in

time periods) . The

symbol (z) next to

a node gives as z the

static capacity of

the node in people.

SWB.

[7, 2

]

QS „ D°,uVf«o)r , v7^ *3

'

(it)

Cal| ^7

(to)

ft, 2]

SWB. B

Figure 15 BASIC STATIC MODEL OF BUILDING 101

40
(323)

Figure 15 (Continued)

41
will be to the west part of the hall (HC^.) . To continue with the example

of floor 6, movement from can be to either stairwell (SWA^ or SWB^),

while movement from HC^ is always to SWB^.

Next, consider the modeling of floors 5 and 9. These two floors have

several extra features; one is to allow transfer from Stairwell B to

Stairwell A, the other is to allow access to elevators. Thus the model

permits the representation of people descending either Stairwell A or B

and then taking an elevator from either floor 5 or 9. Pauls [18] has

discussed the use of express elevators, running between the first floor

and selected "safe" floors (i.e., floors which have special features to

protect them in the event of a fire, such as being pressurized, so as

to prevent smoke from entering the floors), to expedite the evacuation

of the building.

In reality, floors 5 and 9 are not "safe" floors, and Building 101 probably does not have enough floors to merit the use of express elevators.

The inclusion of elevators in this model is primarily hypothetical, with

the aim of learning how to include them in a network representation.

Alternatively, one may view the Building 101 model as a representation

of some hypothetical building having a number of floors (excluding the

first floor) which is an integer multiple of ten, and suppose floors 2

through 11 to be "composite" floors, each corresponding to a number of

floors in the hypothetical building. One might then also suppose the

number of people on each floor to be some "scaled" representation of the

actual number of people, e.g., having 19 on floor 11 might actually

42
represent 19 x 2 = 38 people, or 19 x 4 = 76 people, in which case

capacities would need to be scaled accordingly. For such a larger

"scaled" building, staging elevators might be a desirable feature.

The model assumes that elevators run on a regular schedule between the

fifth floor and the lobby, and the ninth floor and the lobby. In particular, elevators leave each of the two floors once per minute for the

lobby, beginning at the start of time period five for the fifth floor,

and the start of time period six for the ninth floor. To simplify the

model a bit, it was assumed that each of the two floors is served by a

pair of elevators, operating in tandem. Supposing each elevator to have

a capacity of 16 people, a pair of elevators has a capacity of 32. Figure

16 shows the representation of the elevators in the dynamic network model

of Building 101.

With reference to Figure 16, we can see that elevators travel from floor 9

to the lobby during periods 6 through 9, 12 through 15, 18 through 21,

24 through 27, and 30 through 33. Likewise the pair of elevators serving

floor 5 travel from floor 5 to the lobby during periods 5 through 8, 11

through 14, 17 through 20, 23 through 26, 29 through 32, and 35 through 38.

Assuming the elevators travel in tandem allows a simpler network representation of the elevators, as one arc with a capacity of 32 can represent

the travel of a pair of elevators in tandem from either floor 5, or floor 9,

to the lobby.

43
Figure 16 REPRESENTATION OF ELEVATORS IN DYNAMIC NETWORK MODEL OF BUILDING 101

44
The model allows four time periods for each pair of elevators to load,

travel to the lobby, and unload. Likewise, two time periods are allowed

for each pair of elevators to travel empty from the lobby up to either

floor 5 or 9. (In actuality, the time between elevator doors beginning

to close in the lobby until opening completely on floor 5 is about 14.5

seconds, while for floor 9 it is about 18.5 seconds. Since the model

represents time by means of discrete time periods, each of 10-second

duration, 20 seconds is the closest the model can come to representing

the actual travel times.) Towards the end of this study we have concluded

that allowing about ten seconds for loading, and ten seconds for unloading,

is a bit optimistic; 15 to 20 seconds would be more realistic. While we

did not have the opportunity to change the model accordingly, that change

could be made rather easily by allowing either 5 or 6 time periods for

loading, traveling to the lobby, and then unloading, so that the arcs

representing elevator movement in Figure 16 would cut across either 5 or

6 time periods, rather than 4. More generally, it should be clear that

the travel of individual elevators can be modeled if desired, providing

only that each runs on a fixed schedule in multiples of the duration of

a time period. (It does not seem possible to incorporate, in a network

flow optimization approach, the case where elevators move in response to

demand on individual floors. In any event, one would probably want to

preclude such demand-actuated elevator movement during a building evacuation. )

As will be seen, the model has the facility either to use or not to use

elevators during the representation of a building evacuation: elevator

use is precluded simply by assigning large costs to the arcs representing

45
elevator movement in Figure 16. Elevator use is allowed by assigning

costs of zero to these arcs.

The second page of Figure 15 presents the static model of that part of

the first floor of Building 101 of interest. The abbreviations have the

following meaning:

LEL5 : doors of elevators running between lobby and floor 5

LEL9 : doors of elevators running between lobby and floor 9

DUMMY

a dummy node used to help represent movement from the floor

space in front of the elevator doors to the area in the

vicinity of the receptionist's desk

SWAD : door opening from Stairwell A onto the lobby

SWBD : door opening from Stairwell B onto the personnel corridor

RCPD : that part of the lobby in the vicinity of the receptionist's

desk

PCD : that part of the first floor in the vicinity of the doors

between the lobby and the personnel corridor

TRNF : "turnstile" used to record movement through the front lobby doors

TRNS : "turnstile" used to record movement through the side lobby doors

TRNC : "turnstile" used to record movement from the SWB door to the

crosswalk doors

OUT : outside

Note that the model assumes people leaving Stairwell A may exit the building by passing through the personnel corridor door, walking along the

personnel corridor past the Stairwell B door, and then leaving the building

46
via the crosswalk exit (TRNC) . Alternatively, they can pass by the personnel corridor door and travel directly to the side exit (TRNS) , or pass

by the personnel corridor door, pass by the area in the lobby near the

receptionist's desk, and exit via the front doors (TRNF) . Similarly, the

model assumes that people arriving at the first floor via elevator or

Stairwell B can exit the building by any one of the three exits. The

total number of people leaving the building via all three exits must be

the number of people in the building, 323.

Figure 17 shows a side view of that part of a stairwell joining any two

adjacent floors (neither one the lobby). Stairwells A and B are mirror

images of one another. Data of Pauls [16] indicate that stairwell widths

play a crucial role in determining flow rates on stairwells. Based on

observation of actual trial building evacuations, Pauls suggests the following empirically determined equation (see [16]) for predicting stairwell

flow rates:

f = (0.206) w' (p/w')°*

27

.

In this equation, w' is the effective width of a stairwell in meters,

obtained by subtracting 0.3 m. from the actual width, while p is the number

of people using the stairwell in total. The term f, the flow rate, has

units of people per second. Since the actual width of each stairwell in

Building 101 is 44 inches (1.12 m.), the effective width is 0.82 m. If

p

= 165 people use a stairwell, then f works out to be 0.7074 people per

second, which when rounded and scaled to 7 people per ten seconds, was

47
STAIR WIDTH = 44 INCHES = 111.76 CM

TREAD DEPTH = 12.5 INCHES = 31.75 CM

RISER HEIGHT = 6.5 INCHES = 16.51 CM

FLOOR

LANDING

INTERMEDIATE — LANDING

FLOOR

LANDING

Figure 17 SIDE VIEW SKETCH OF STAIRWELL BETWEEN FLOORS

48
the stairwell flow rate capacity most often used in the model. As will

be seen, the model is quite sensitive to the choice of a flow rate.

Parenthetically, it is interesting to note that the flow rate of 6 x 7 = 42

people per minute is less than half the figure of 90 people per minute

recommended for 44-inch-wide stairs in an influential National Bureau of

Standards study of 1935 [5]. We shall subsequently present further

data suggesting that this flow rate (90 people per minute) is highly

optimistic

.

Perhaps the simplest means of describing arc and node data is to consider

a specific floor. With reference to Figure 15, consider floor 3. The

single number in parentheses next to each node represents the static node

capacity: at most 99 people can ever be in W^, at most 140 people in H^,

and at most 20 people in either SWA^ or SWB^. The pair of numbers in

brackets adjacent to each arc gives, as first entry, the arc capacity

per time period and, as second entry, the average number of time

periods needed to traverse the arc. The duration of a time period is

always ten seconds. Thus, for floor 3, it takes an average of one time

period to prepare to travel and then to travel from a. workplace into the

hall, and as many as 120 people per time period can travel from the workplaces to the hall. Once a person is in the hall, it takes an average of

two time periods to travel to either stairwell, and the associated flow rate

capacity is 21 people per time period. It takes two time periods to

descend one floor in either stairwell, and the associated flow rate capacity

is 7 people per time period.

49
How were the node and arc data (say, for floor 3) determined? The figure

for stairwell flow rate capacity was discussed above. The flow rate of

0.7 people per second led in turn to the choice of ten seconds as the

duration of a time period, giving a flow rate of 7 people per time period.

The arc travel times were determined by actually walking the distances

involved at what seemed a moderate rate, and then rounding up the walking

time to the next largest number of time periods. With reference to

Figure 14, no office door is farther than 55 feet (16.76 m.) from a stairwell, and the model allows 2 time periods to travel 55 feet. Allowing each

person in the hall 12 square feet (1.11 sq. m.) permits 140 people (to

the nearest 10 people) in the hall. Because the hall is 7.5 feet (2.29 m.)

wide, three files of people could walk abreast in the hall with little

difficulty. One would expect each file to have a flow rate at least as

high as that in the stairwells, giving a flow rate capacity of 3 x 7 = 21

for travel between the hall and the stairwell. Additional substantiation

for this figure (21 people per time period) comes from Fruin [7], p.76,

who points out that if the average pedestrian area occupancy is 10 to 15

square feet (.93 to 1.39 square meters), then the average flow volume

will be between 15 to 20 PFM (pedestrians per foot width of walkway, per

minute). Thus allowing each person in the hall 12 square feet would, since

the hall is 7.5 feet wide, yield a hall flow rate between (7.5) x (15) =

112.5 and (7.5) x (20) = 150 people per minute, that is about 19 to 25

people per ten-second time period.

The stairwell static capacity of 20 comes from considering the number of

steps between floors (see Figure 17) and the space available on the landings. In retrospect, allowing as many as 20 people on the stairwell between

50
any two floors is probably a bit optimistic if a flow rate of 7 people

per time period is to be realized. Fortunately, in the computer runs

made there were only a few runs for which there were substantial waits

in stairwells, so that the assumption of 20 people does not appear to be

critical. Also, allowing two time periods to descend a floor may provide

some compensation, since Pauls points out [18] that fifteen seconds (1.5

time periods) would be a typical time to descend one floor in a stairwell.

The capacity of 120 people per time period on the arc joining W and

comes from counting the number of office doors in use on the floor (2U)

and assuming it would take two seconds to open and pass through a door,

so that 5 people could open and pass through a door in a single time

period, in turn permitting 5 x 2k = 120 people to pass through all 2h

doors in a single time period.

Data for the floors other than floor 3 were determined in similar manner,

with hall capacities being adjusted as necessary to reflect the amount of

hall space available. Also, for floors 5 and 9 5 provision is made to

represent people waiting for elevators. Further, the capacity of the arc

from the SWB node to the H node is twice the capacity of the arc from the

H node to the SWB node, to expedite the flow of people leaving SWB to

wait for elevators.

We must emphasize that, despite our efforts to be careful and conservative

in these selections of data, we would not wish these figures to be quoted

out of context. With the exception of the data based upon Pauls’ work.

51
and upon Fruin's work, our figures are not substantiated by an appropriate

body of observations and/or experiments. Our primary research effort has

been devoted to developing the appropriate model structure , not to obtaining appropriate data for particular situations. In working with the

computer model, any change of the model structure may well require the

construction of new static and dynamic networks. Data changes, however,

are quite simply made. These considerations dictate that a great deal

of care goes into determining the appropriate model structure.

Figure 18 illustrates the representation of the turnstiles in the dynamic

network model of Building 101. For these turnstiles the numbers on the

holdover arcs may be thought of as payments received by individuals who

"flow" through the arcs. Thus, for example, a unit of flow entering

Turnstile C (TRNC) during period 5 would receive a total payment of

4 + ... + 56, a unit of flow entering during period 6 would receive a total

payment of 5 + ... + 56, etc. Payments for Turnstile S work in exactly the

same manner. Because it is impossible for any flow to arrive at Turnstile

F after period 54, the modeling of Turnstile F stops after period 54.

This fact makes it necessary to assign a cost of K = 53 + 54 + 55 + 56

to the holdover arc during period 54, so that payments made to units of

flow entering Turnstile F during a given period will be the same as to

units of flow entering either of the other two turnstiles during the

same period. For example, a unit of flow entering Turnstile F during

period 4 would receive a total payment of 4+ ... + 52 + K = 4+ ... +

56, which is the same payment a unit of flow entering either of the

other two turnstiles during period 4 would receive.

52
TIME

PERIOD

TRNF

CTRF

t

i—i—i—i—i—

r

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

O Q O Q O O 0

1 2 3 4 5 6

TRNC

CTRC

9 9 9 9

6—6—0—

6

4 5 6

TRNS

CTRS

OUT

9 9 9 9

6—6—6—

6

4 5 6

T 1 1 1 1 1 1 52 53 54 55 56 57

Figure 18 REPRESENTATION OF TURNSTILES IN DYNAMIC NETWORK MODEL OF BUILDING 101

53
The model elicits the routing of units of flow through the network so as

to maximize the total amount of payments received by all 323 units of

flow.

It should be noted that the means of assigning turnstile costs illustrated

in Figure 18 is different from the one used earlier for the simple model

of the three floor building. The approach of this section is a bit more

complex, but has the advantage that it can be carried out with fewer arcs:

the vertical arcs between the TRN nodes and the CTR nodes are actually

unnecessary, and could be omitted. For example, if the TRNC nodes were

omitted, the arcs coming from the replicated SWBD node copies could go

directly to the associated CTRC node copies, permitting the elimination

of 53 arcs.

54
4.0 COMPUTER RUNS OF EVACUATION SCENARIOS

Once a network optimization model of a building evacuation is contructed,

it is easy to study a variety of evacuation scenarios by means of that

model, making data changes as necessary to represent the different situations of interest. The study of these scenarios permit "What if?" questions of interest to be addressed. In this section we examine a number

of scenarios of possible interest for Building 101. Our interest, again,

is not so much in Building 101 per se , as in obtaining insight into the

use of network optimization models to study building evacuation.

In summary, the contents of this section are as follows. We first identify

the various runs made, using Table 1 both to define the runs and to indicate features of the model which can be changed to study various scenarios.

There then follows a summary of each evacuation run, using the static network

model of the building, which shows the total flow in each arc, e.g., the

total number of people traveling from to SWB^, as well as the last time

period there is a flow in the arc, e.g, the last time period anyone traveled

from to SWB^. Data obtained from the runs are summarized in Tables 2 and 3.

Table 1 lists the seventeen computer runs made, which are numbered for

reference convenience from 1 through 17. Each column except the last

identifies a feature of the model which is changed during the runs. Column

1 lists the dynamic capacity of all the Stairwell A arcs, which was kept

as 7 per time period except for runs 16 and 17. Column 2 lists the dynamic

capacity of all the Stairwell B arcs, which were either all 7, all 15, or

55
all T with the exception of the stairwell arcs from the second floor to

the lobby (which were changed to be 3, 1, or 0 in some runs). Column 3

represents the decision to model a building evacuation either with or

without the use of elevators. With reference to Column U : to represent

a situation where a particular floor had more than its customary number

of people, in some runs 50 additional people were placed on floor 10 via

the model. When 50 additional people were placed on floor 10, in some

runs first priority (see Column 5) was given to the evacuation of floor 10

by assigning costs of 999 to all the holdover arcs on floor 10: in effect,

it was made expensive to keep units of flow waiting on floor 10, as might

be the case in actuality if, for example, a fire broke out on floor 10.

In conjunction with giving first priority to the evacuation of floor 10,

in some runs second priority was given to the evacuation of floor 11 (see

Column 6) by assigning costs of 555 to all of the holdover arcs on floor 11.

This second priority assignment was suggested by the possibility that a

fire breaking out first on floor 10, might next threaten floor 11.

The model has the capability of using any combination of the following

exits: front, side, and crosswalk. Whether or not an exit is available

for use is represented by whether or not a large cost (typically 99999)

is assigned to the arcs leading immediately to the node representing the

exit. Note that in runs 1 through IT, the side lobby exit was kept

unavailable. In preliminary runs made, because the walking time from

either first-floor stairwell door is the same to the front exit as to

the side exit, the model was routing flow indifferently via both exits.

However, in reality the side exit is not used much in comparison to the

56
Q

’

*o O’ <V 4?

<</ O'

<^

V

'\

<£-$>

Jb<?

*•$>

^

<\

0^

6* °-. v #

1 7 7 NO NO NO NO YES NO 35

2

1 YES 35

3 YES 38

4 3* NO 44

5 1*

1 52

6 7 YES YES 27

7

1 NO i 23

8 3* 26

9 0* ’ 1 28

10 7 NO YES 35

1

11 YES 38

12 YES 1 27

13 NO NO YES 35

14 YES 38

15 YES 27

16 15 15 NO NO NO NO 30

17 1 YES

1 1 l

' 22

Table 1. Run Listing with "What if" Features

57
front exit, due in part to the fact that the major parking lot serving

building occupants is most readily accessible via the front exit. As

it thus seems unlikely the side exits would receive much use even in an

* emergency evacuation, the use of the side exits was precluded in the

model. The possible preference of building occupants for particular

exits is a behavioral phenomenon which the network optimization model

cannot very well reflect.

The last column of Table 1 gives the number of time periods needed to

evacuate the building for each run. Generally speaking, these times

seem to vary in the way one might expect, with reduced flow rates causing

evacuation times to increase, having more people in the building causing

evacuation times to increase, and use of elevators causing evacuation times

to decrease substantially. An interesting anomaly occurs in run 16, where

the building evacuation time is 30 time periods, a decrease of 5 time

periods from run 2, even though the stairwell capacities are more than

twice those in run 2: the reasons for this anomaly will be considered

in some detail subsequently.

Runs 1 through 17 are summarized graphically in Appendix A. Because of

the number of these runs, a detailed discussion of each would make this

part of the report long and tedious. Therefore we shall discuss only a

few runs in detail, and comment briefly on the others. Then, rather

than making detailed verbal comparisons of various runs, we shall summarize

the comparisons in two tables, Tables 2 and 3.

*Unless specific instructions to the contrary were communicated and

reinforced. 58
Run 2 may be considered the benchmark run, in the sense that it most

closely represents the existing state of Building 101. With reference

to Figure A- 2, data presented in parentheses next to each arc, of the

form (x,y), have the following meaning: x is the total amount of flow

through the arc, while y is the last time period the arc is used. For

example, for the arc from to SWA^, there is a total flow on the arc

of 14, and the last time period of use is during period 3. By examining

the data for the stairwell arcs, we can easily determine the last time

period during which portions of the stairwell are used. For example,

for Stairwell A, the last time that part of the stairwell between floors

10 and 9 is used is during period 7, the last time that part between

floors 9 and 8 is used is during period 14, etc. By the end of time

period 31, all 162 people using Stairwell A have passed through the Stairwell A Lobby Door. Likewise, by the end of time period 30 all 161 people

using Stairwell B have passed through that stairwell’s Lobby Door. All

the people who used Stairwell A exit via the front exits, while all the

people who used Stairwell B exit via the crosswalk exit. Note that the

numbers of people using the front and crosswalk exits are almost identical, as are the last time periods each exit is used.

With reference to floors 5 and 9 in Figure A-2, we can see some unnecessary

transfers from Stairwell B to the Hall and then back to Stairwell B. This

transfer facility was built into the model so that evacuation using elevators can be represented. The model in its current state does not

reflect the fact that such transfers from the stairwell to the hall and

back are unnecessary, as well as perhaps undesirable, when elevators are

59
not used. However, such transfers can be precluded by attaching a high

cost to the arc from the stairwell to the hall: one would then need to

remember to reduce this cost to zero in runs in which elevators are to

be used. It is well to remember that the driving force of the model for

evacuating people from the building consists of the costs assigned to

the turnstiles: the model as is will permit "looping" between Stairwell B

and the Hall on floors 5 and 9 unless the looping is precluded by using

high arc costs for one of the arcs in the loop. This anomaly has no

effect on the objective function value, i.e. whether people are "waiting"

or "looping" makes no difference in total evacuation time.

Examining the output results for the dynamic evacuation model shows that

exactly 7 people per period use Turnstile C in each of 23 time periods:

exactly 7 people use Turnstile F in each of 23 time periods as well, while

there was one time period in which only one individual uses Turnstile F.

Because Pauls' model predicted 7 people per time period, it is reassuring

to find such close agreement.

Figure A- 2 illustrates an interesting phenomenon which occurred in every

run except Run 9 (in which elevators are used and Stairwell B "closed")

:

namely, the time periods during which each of the two exits "clear" differs

by at most one. In many cases the "clearing times" are identical. For

lack of a better term, we refer to this uniformity of clearing times as

the "uniformity principle." The principle may be stated as follows:

Given a building in which each occupant has reasonable access to every

one of the evacuation routes, if the building is evacuated in minimum

time then the times at which the evacuation routes clear will tend to be

the same. For a simpler building model the uniformity principle can be

60
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with

Comments
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Table

3.

Summary

of

Runs,

With

Periods

in

Which

Floors

Clear,

&

Numbers

of

People

Using

Various

Routes
proven mathematically: see Appendix B for more detail. The principle

is easy to motivate: if some evacuation route clears at a substantially

later time than the others, then some of the people who use this route

could instead use other routes (to which they have reasonable access),

thus reducing the time to evacuate the building.

Figure A-l summarizes Run 1, in which the use of the Crosswalk Turnstile

is precluded. Note that the time to evacuate the building is the same

as in Run 2 (35 time periods). This is because the walking time (in the

model) from the Stairwell B Door to either the Front or Crosswalk Turnstile is the same, and the Front Turnstile has twice the capacity of the

Crosswalk Turnstile.

For Run 3 (see Figure A-3) 50 additional people are placed on the tenth

floor to be evacuated. It then takes 38 time periods (three more than

in Runs 1 and 2) to evacuate the building, and 8 time periods (two more

than in Runs 1 and 2) to clear the tenth floor.

The data for Run 4 are the same as for Run 2, except that the flow rate

capacity of Stairwell B is changed from 7 to 3 in the stairwell between

the first and second floors. This reduction might represent a partial

blockage of Stairwell B. Note how the model adjusts for this reduction,

sending only 97 people via Stairwell B, and 226 people via Stairwell A.

Further, not only is the uniformity principle still true, but the times

at which the two stairwells clear are the same. By comparison with Run 2,

the flow rate capacity reduction in Stairwell B causes the building evacuation time to increase from 35 to 44 time periods.

63
Run 5 has the same data as Run 4, except that the flow rate capacity of

Stairwell B is reduced further, from 3 to 1, between the second and first

floors. Even fewer people (48) used Stairwell B than in Run 4. In spite

of this, the two stairwells still clear at the same time, as do the two

turnstiles. The number of time periods needed to evacuate the building

increases to 55.

The data for Run 6 are the same as for Run 3, but there are 50 extra

people on the tenth floor and the use of elevators is allowed. The

elevators serving floor 9 make three round trips, while those serving

floor 5 make four round trips. Note that 46 of the people on floors 9

through 11 do not use the elevators. Likewise, a number of people on

floors 5 through 8 do not use the elevators, using the stairs instead.

It is interesting to note that one individual entering the lobby via the

Stairwell A Door exits the building via Turnstile C: an examination of

the output for the dynamic model showed that this individual arrived during

a time period when a large number of people who had arrived via the elevators were using the Front Turnstile to capacity. (The same phenomenon

occurs in Runs 7, 8, 9, 12, and 15.) As a final remark, it is interesting

to note that the uniformity principle holds, even though, due to the use of

elevators, numerous people in the building do not have reasonable access to

every evacuation route, e.g., people on floors 2, 3, and 4 do not have

access to the elevators.

The data for Run 7 are the same as for Run 4, except that the number of

people on the tenth floor is reduced back to 29. It is interesting to

64
note that only one of the people on floors 9 5 10 , and 11 do not use the

elevators running from floor 9« More people use Stairwell B than Stairwell A; one might expect this, because Stairwell A is closer to the elevators.

For Run 8, the flow rate capacity of that part of Stairwell B joining the

second and first floors is taken to be 3, and the use of elevators is

allowed. In this run everyone on floors 9 through 11 uses the elevators,

and more than twice as many people use Stairwell A as used Stairwell B.

Again, the uniformity principle holds.

The data for Run 9 are the same as for Run 8, except that the use of Stairwell B between the first and second floors was precluded by assigning very

large costs to the associated stairwell arcs. Note that everyone on the

ninth through the eleventh floor uses the elevators, and 5^ people transfer from Stairwell B to Stairwell A on the fifth floor.

For Run 10, costs are assigned to the holdover arcs on the tenth floor, to

represent a situation for which it is urgent to get everyone off the tenth

floor. Indeed, everyone is off the tenth floor by the end of time period

3. (By comparison, it takes 6 time periods to get everyone off the tenth

floor during Run 2.) This may be an appropriate place to remark that,

unless costs are assigned to holdover arcs for floors, the model does not

reflect the fact that it is better for people to be in the stairwells than

to remain on the floors.

65
The data for Run 11 are the same as for Run 10, except that there are

50 extra people on the tenth floor. Note that the tenth floor is evacuated

"by the end of time period 5» as compared to 8 time periods during Run 3.

For Run 12 there are 79 people on floor 10, it is "expensive" to remain

on Floor 10, and elevators can be used. More people use Stairwell B than

use Stairwell A, and 46 of the people on floors 9 through 11 do not use

the elevators.

The data for Run 13 are the same as for Run 2, except that holdover arc

costs of 999 are used for the tenth floor, and holdover arc costs of 555

are used for the eleventh floor. Floors 10 and 11 both clear by time

period 3, as compared to time period 6 during Run 2.

The data for Run l4 are the same as for Run 13, except that 50 extra

people are placed on floor 10, causing the floor to clear in the fifth

time period, as compared to the third time period in Run l4.

For Run 15, the data of Run l4 are changed to permit the use of elevators,

accordingly effecting a drastic reduction, from 38 to 27, in the number

of time periods needed to evacuate the building.

For Run l6, the data are the same as for Run 2, except that stairwell

flow rate capacities are 15 per time period (90 people per minute). Even

though the stairwell flow rate capacities are more than doubled, from 7 to

15, the time to evacuate the building only decreases from 35 to 30 time

66
periods. An examination of the number of people passing through the Stairwell A and B doors per time period shows that flow rates of 15 people per

time period are seldom attained: only for time periods 10 and 2b for Stairwell A, and 10 and 2b for Stairwell B. Figure 19 shows the number of people

per time period passing through the Stairwell B door, for each of the time

periods 8 through 26 : the variation from one time period to another is

quite noticeable. Effectively, what happened in Run l6 is that the Stairwell

flow rate capacities are so large that they are hardly ever binding; in

fact the 30 time periods needed to evacuate the building is just the number

of time periods needed to walk from the eleventh floor to the exits. Additional insight can be obtained by observing that if a flow rate of 15

people per time period could be attained, then it would take only 23 time

periods to evacuate the building. The first people from floor 2 will reach

the exits during the twelfth time period: if a steady flow rate of 15 could

then be maintained, with l 62 people using one exit and l6l using the other

exit, it would take 162/15 = 10.8 and l6l/l5 = 10.73 time periods respectively for the files of people using the two stairwells to pass through the

exit, giving 12 + 10.8 = 22.8 and 12 + 10.73 = 22.73 time periods, rounded

up to 23 time periods, needed for the two turnstiles to clear. As these

times are less than the time to walk from the eleventh floor to either exit,

it is clearly impossible to attain a flow rate of 15 people per second in

Building 101 for the conditions of Run l6. We speculate, but have had no

opportunity to check, that if all the data for Run l6 were held constant

except that more people were in the building, then there would be some

"critical number" of people in the building, above which the flow rate of 15

67
RUN 16 FLOWS THROUGH SWB DOOR

TIME PERIOD

Figure 19 FLOWS THROUGH SWB DOOR, RUN 16
could be attained, and below which it would not always be attained. If

this critical number of people is x, we would expect x/ ( 2 x 15) + 12 30,

so that x > 30 x 18 = 5U0. Even if a flow rate of 15 could be attained

in the model, there is no guarantee that it could be attained in an actual

evacuation. It should be remembered that stairwell flow rate capacities

are upper bounds on stairwell flow rates, and should be set accordingly.

For most runs we set the stairwell flow rate capacities to be 7 because we

believed this to be a reasonable upper bound on the flow rate.

The data for Run 17 are the same as for Run 16 except that elevators are

used. We can see that all but 5 of the people on floors 9> 10, and 11

use the elevators, while 86 people used the elevators running from floor 5.

A total of 88 people use Stairwell B, while a total of 67 people used Stairwell A; this might be expected, since the elevators are closer to Stairwell

A than to Stairwell B. In this run the building was evacuated in 22 time

periods, the smallest evacuation time of any of the runs, although only 1

time period less than in Run 7, which has identical data to Run 17 except

for stairwell flow rate capacities of 7»

The reader is further referred to Tables 2 and 3 for further summaries of

the runs. Table 2 lists a number of runs which differ by only one feature,

identifies the feature, and gives comments on differences in results obtained. Table 3 lists the time period in which each floor is cleared of

people in each run, and also summarizes the number of people evacuating

the building by various routes. For further information we refer the

reader to computer printouts included in the appendix.

69
At this point we summarize some of our conclusions from the runs discussed

above, reserving for the following section a discussion on general conclusions, open questions, model limitations, and possible future work.

We believe our experience in modeling Building 101 demonstrates the fact

that it is possible to construct "skeletal," i.e., network, models of an

entire building and the people it contains: the models are quantitative,

and recommend ways to route people out of the building so as to minimize

the total evacuation time. Because these are optimization models, they

provide standards of comparisons, or benchmark solutions; idealized goals

towards which to strive. Further, such models can be designed so that they

can be at least partially validated, in the sense that they give results

(as in Run 2) which compare well with the empirical results of Pauls. As

one might expect, stairwell flow rates turn out to be critical, and the

use of elevators reduces building evacuation times drastically. Runs 16

and 17 cast considerable doubt (over and above the doubt already cast) on

the widely accepted flow rate assumption of 90 people per minute for stairs

44" (1.12 m.) wide, and suggest that stairwell flow rates can be maintained

at their upper limit only if there is a sufficiently large number of people

in the building. Finally, we state again the uniformity principle:

Given a building in which each occupant has reasonable access to every

one of the evacuation routes, if the building is evacuated in minimum

time, then the times at which the evacuation routes clear will tend to

be the same.

We remark that the uniformity principle is not unrelated to one of the

two principles of WARDRUP dealing with traffic flow [19], [24].

70
5.0 COMPUTER IMPLEMENTATION

This section presents a working level, first-attempt computer implementation of a network optimization model for building evacuation. The material

in this section is intended for a programmer interested in utilizing the

previously described solution procedure. Readers not familiar with computer programming may choose to omit this section. The computer codes

described herein were created for the purposes of (1) examining the computational feasibility of that model, and (2) examining the behavior of the

model under various evacuation conditions for Building 101 at the National

Bureau of Standards. The current version of this material is viewed as

only a rough first version of a software package which could ultimately

provide a practical tool for understanding the relationship between the

evacuation process and the building configuration (with modifications to

represent emergency conditions) . Such a tool could be useful to architects

in designing buildings, to municipal officials responsible for building

codes, and to safety officials interested in developing and promoting appropriate evacuation strategies.

The computer package consists of four programs. The evacuation optimization

is accomplished using GNET, a primal network transshipment-problem code

graciously made available to NBS by the authors Bradley, Brown, and Graves

[3]. The other three programs were written at NBS to aid in data preparation and output analysis. SETUP helps the process of enlarging the

static network representing the building to the time-expanded network which

is input to GNET. CHECK performs the reverse operations, producing a

convenient record of changes made to the static network associated with a

71
specified time-expanded network. POSTPRO transforms the standard GNET

output to a form more readily useful for analysis of the results. Both

CHECK and POSTPRO contain some lines of code which are specific to the

building or network under consideration. This part of the report will

discuss these four programs, all of which are written in FORTRAN and were

executed on the UNIVAC 1108 at NBS under the EXEC 8 Operations System.

Use of these programs will be illustrated via a complete set of input and

output data for the three-story building described in Section 2.0.

Listings of SETUP, CHECK, and POSTPRO appear in Appendix C.

The Solution Procedure: GNET

The dynamic model described in Section 2.0 is a capacitated network flow

model, in particular, a transshipment model. Problems of this type are

readily solved by existing computer transshipment algorithm programs

such as GNET. (Requests for copies of GNET should be addressed to the

GNET authors.) For solving the building evacuation model, GNET was used

as a "black box," i.e. no modifications were made at NBS to the code

originally supplied by the authors. For all runs the output switch was

fixed at 1 to produce only the summary output (described later) and a

listing of arcs with non-zero flow in the final solution. This output

served as input to the postprocessor, POSTPRO.

Input to GNET consists of the following information. The first record

gives the number of nodes (in the time-expanded network) and the value

of the output switch in the format 215. This is followed by one record

72
for each arc (in the time-expanded net-work) giving the arc name (optional),

origin node number, destination node number, cost, and capacity in the

format (AU, 2X, 216, 2X, 2110). (The "origin" and "destination" nodes for

a particular arc are the nodes at the tail and head of the arc, respectively.)

GNET input requires that nodes be numbered sequentially with no gaps, but

the ordering of the arc input may be arbitrary. When the final solution is

listed, arcs are grouped by destinations with lower numbered destinations

first. For the model of Building 101, with time periods of 10 seconds

duration, and allowing a maximum of 10 minutes to evacuate, there were 2591

nodes and 55^+3 arcs. GNET also requires two additional "super" nodes. The

super source node (in this case node 2592 ) supplies people to each work

place. The super sink node (2593 for this example) receives people from

each exit. The appropriate arcs to and from these super nodes must be supplied. Costs on these arcs are zero. The capacity on each arc from the

super source is equal to the number of people at the corresponding work

place. Capacities on the arcs to the super sink must sum to the number of

people in the building. The average time for computation (excluding input

and output), over IT runs on the Building 101 model, was approximately

30 seconds per run. Future research should be directed toward exploring

the possibility of developing a solution procedure which, by exploiting

the special structure of such models, could speed up computation time.

The Preprocessor: SETUP

A simple preprocessing code was written to assist a user in preparing the

input for GNET. This preprocessor requires as input the following data

73
for each arc ARC in the static network representation of the building.

(a) the name of the arc, NAME (ARC)

(b) the number of the origin node, ORIG(ARC)

(c) the number of the destination node, DEST(ARC)

(d) the cost, COST(ARC)

(e) the capacity, CAP (ARC)

(f) the number of copies of the arc needed in the time-expanded

network, NUMB (ARC)

.

The code expands the network in the following way. For each arc, ARC,

in the static network, the code generates NUMB (ARC) arcs in the timeexpanded network. Consider, for example, the N-th copy of arc ARC, N = 0,

1, ..., NUMB(ARC)-1. The arc number TARC of the arc in the time-expanded

network can be calculated as

ARC-1

TARC = E NUMB(I)+N+1 . 1=1

The properties of arc TARC are calculated from the properties of arc ARC

in the static network in accordance with the following:

NAME (TARC)

ORIG(TARC)

DEST(TARC)

COST (TARC)

CAP (TARC)

NAME (ARC)

ORIG (ARC)+N-1

DEST (ARC)+N-1

COST (ARC)

CAP (ARC)

(5-1)

74
Exceptions to this method of expansion can be handled by editing the

resulting data file for the time-expanded network.

A listing of this expansion program appears in Appendix C. The first

input record contains the number of arcs in the static network (including

arcs originating at the super source and arcs destined for the super sink)

and the number of nodes in the time-expanded network (excluding the super

source and the super sink) , in the format 215. Thereafter the input consists of one record for each arc numbered above. Each record contains

NAME (ARC) , ORIG(ARC) , DEST(ARC), COS T (ARC) , CAP(ARC), and NUMB (ARC) in the

format (A4, 2X, 216, 2X, 3110). Output from this program is directed to

logical unit 7 and is in the format required for input to GNET.

The expansion procedure described above is extremely simplistic, as will

be explained in the next paragraph. Its biggest advantage is the savings

it affords in keypunching time and costs. To generate the 5543 arcs for

the 11-story building described earlier, the user need only prepare data

for the 175 arcs needed to represent the static network.

It should be noted and emphasized that preparing the arcs of the static

network is not a quick and simple process. An appropriate conceptualization of the building must be developed to represent workplaces, stairwells,

elevators, halls, interior doors, and exits, along with reasonable capacities and flow rates on connecting arcs. This conceptualization might

best be developed as a drawing such as Figure 4. Next, the user must

determine the number of expansion arcs needed for each arc in the static

75
network. As stated in Sethis determination can be accomplished

by determining a value for T, the maximum number of time periods needed

to evacuate the entire building, and then expanding the network to have

T copies of each arc in the static network plus holdover arcs connecting

time-adjacent copies of each node. Although this procedure results in

a network which includes some arcs ("inessential") which will never be

* used, it is far simpler than a procedure which would delete all inessential arcs. Future study might well be devoted to evaluating the merits

of each alternative.

After determining the number of expansion arcs needed, the user should

give some thought to the numbering of nodes. Although GNET does not

require any particular order when the arc data are input, there is a requirement that all nodes be numbered sequentially with no gaps. The postprocessor and the expansion procedure both require that the origin and

destination of the (n+l)-st copy of an arc be one greater than the origin

I and destination of the n-th copy. The user may, however, have preferences

about the order in which these groups occur in output. For example, it

may be desirable to see workplace- to-hall type arcs, beginning with

the top floor and working down to the ground floor, followed by all hallto-stairwell arcs in the same order, etc. If so, then nodes representing

workplaces should have smaller numbers than nodes representing halls, and

halls should have lower numbers than stairwells. Likewise, nodes on higher

floors should have lower numbers than nodes on lower floors. A systematic

•k In the very early time periods it would be impossible for people originating

at work places to be traversing hall or stairwell arcs to exits. In the

latter time periods arcs on higher floors are not used because everyone

would have already evaculated to a lower floor.

76
procedure for ordering nodes can greatly facilitate the output analysis.

It would not be difficult to automate the entire process of network expansion, including the counting and numbering of nodes, provided that each

node has the same number of copies. (Determining how best to identify

and delete inessential arcs requires further study.) Indeed, automating

the expansion process is one of the top-priority efforts to be associated

with the modelling of any additional buildings to be studied.

The Verification Procedure: CHECK

A typical application of the building evacuation model might consist of

exercising the model on a number of different scenarios to represent various

effects of disasters within the building: for example, a stairwell might

be blocked above some floor after some time period, elevators might be outof-service, etc. These situations are represented in the time-expanded

network by modification of costs and/or capacities on selected arcs. Such

changes are relatively easy to accomplish via an editing package available

on most large computers. Particularly when many runs are to be made involving many data modifications, it is desirable to have some mechanism to

help insure that the network model is and remains correct. A verification

procedure was written to aid in this checking. The procedure accepts as input

the time-expanded network and produces as output the corresponding static network. Checks are made to ensure that the relationships of (5-1) hold. Input

to this program is identical to input for GNET as given earlier in this

section. Output is identical to the input to the preprocessor, SETUP,

described previously. A listing of this procedure appears in Appendix C.

77
It should be noted that the current version of this program contains

several lines of code which are specific to the model of Building 101.

These specificities, which concern legitimate exceptions to the relationships of (1), occur in the listing as several of the lines of code between

the statement labeled 140 and the statement labeled 146. It would not be

difficult to exclude these exceptions or to replace them with other exceptions .

The Post-Processor: POSTPRO

The standard output from GNET is a list of all arcs which have non-zero

flow. These arcs are identified by the numbers of their origin and destination nodes. For the present application it was felt that node names

rather than numbers would greatly facilitate the interpretation of output.

Furthermore, in the GNET output arcs are ordered by destination, i.e. arcs

with lower numbered destination appear prior to arcs with higher numbered

destinations. For each destination, arcs are ordered by origin with lower

numbered origins appearing first. This particular ordering scheme did

not seem most appropriate for the current application. A post-processor/

report generator was written to alleviate these difficulties.

The post-processor generates, at the user's option, any or all of three

reports. In all reports, arcs are identified by 6-character names for

both the origin and destination nodes. Both the flow and the time periods

of the flow are printed. In the first report , the order in which the arcs

are listed is by destination, exactly as described above. In the second

report , the arcs are ordered by origin, i.e. all arcs with the same origin

78
appear together in order of increasing destination. The order in which

the origins occur is the order in which they would first appear in the

first report. The third report lists, for each static arc with non-zero

flow in at least one time period, the total flow over all time periods

and the time period and amount of flow of the latest flow over that arc.

The third report was found to he most useful in analyzing the results

from the example problem. Either of the first two reports is helpful

in tracing the time sequence of events of interest as represented by

the dynamic model. In addition to the reports, the post-processor also

echos all of the summary information produced by GNET. This information

includes the number of nodes and arcs in the network, the total supplies

and demands (people to be evacuated), the solution time, the number of

"pivots" performed by the optimization algorithm, and the total cost, i.e.

the optimal objective-function value.

The post-processor requires, as input, the output from GNET plus the node

data necessary to determine node names and time periods. These data

consist of the number of nodes in the static network and the following

three pieces of information for each node N in the static network: LOWER(n)

is the node number in the time- expanded network of copy 0 of node N.

OFFSET(N) is a value used to determine the time period in the following

way: if node K in the time-expanded network is some copy of node N in

the static network, then the time period which K represents is calculated

as K-0FFSET(N)+1 when K is an origin and as K-OFFSET when K is a destination.

NAME(N) is the six-character name for node N. The number of nodes is read

in as a single record in 15 format. For the remainder of the data there

79
is one record per node with format (15, 5X, 15, IX, A6)

.

POSTPRO consists of a main program plus one subroutine which performs a

binary search to locate each node in the time-expanded network with respect

to the node it represents in the static network. A complete listing of

the post-processor appears in the Appendix.

Illustrative Input and Output

The use of the programs discussed previously is perhaps best illustrated

by examining the input and output data for the hypothetical three-story

building described in Section 2.0. (Throughout this discussion the reader

may find it useful to refer to Figure 20 and Figures 4-7.)

Each node was identified by the two-character name shown in Figure 4,

except that the "W" was dropped from the name of each stairwell node and

lobby and exit were named "LY" and "EX" respectively. The super source

and super sink nodes were identified as "SO" and "SI" respectively. Using

these abbreviated node names, arcs between two nodes were given four-character names with the first two characters being the name of the origin node

and the second two characters being the name of the destination node. The

node numbering scheme (refer to Figure 20) assigned numbers 1-6 to the 6

copies of W3, 7-14 to the 8 copies of W2, 15-25 for Wl, 26-31 for H3,

32-39 for H2, 40-45 for SW3, 46-53 for SW2, 54-64 for LY, and 65-75 for EX.

The super source and super sink become nodes 76 and 77 respectively.

80
Figure 20 DYNAMIC NETWORK AND SOLUTION FROM GNET

FOR SIMPLE THREE FLOOR BUILDING

81
Figure 4 illustrates the static network of 9 nodes and 8 arcs. Although

GNET implicitly generates the two super nodes, arcs to and from these

super nodes must be included in the input arc data. For the example, there

is one arc leading from the super source to each of the three work areas.

The capacity on each of these arcs is equal to the number of people initially located at the associated workplace. There is also an arc from the

exit to the super sink with capacity of 52 (the number of people in the

building). In addition, there is a hold-over arc for each node in Figure 4.

Thus for the total static network there are 11 nodes and 21 arcs. For all

arcs, except the holdover arcs at the exit, the costs are zero and the

capacities are as illustrated in Figure 4. The holdover arcs at the exit

are assigned costs of -1 through -10. The dynamic network and the solution

are illustrated in Figure 20.

The input data for program SETUP appear in Table 4. The first row (record)

gives the number of arcs in the static network and the number of nodes in

the time-expanded network. The remaining records describe each of the

21 arcs by name, origin, destination, costs, capacity, and number of copies

needed in the time-expanded network. Table 5 shows the output from SETUP,

i.e. the input for GNET. The first record gives the number of nodes in

the time-expanded network and a print switch for GNET. The other records

describe each arc in the time-expanded network by name, origin, destination,

cost, and capacity. The user should note that the exceptions to the rules

for expanding the network, in this case the costs on the arcs named EXEX,

were all dealt with using an editing routine after SETUP was executed.

82
The output from GNET, i.e. the input to POSTPRO, appears in Table 6. The

additional data needed by POSTPRO to associate node numbers with node

names and time periods appear in Table 7. The first record in Table 7

is the number of nodes. The remaining records give for each node the

lowest number which represents that node, an offset value used to

determine time periods, and the node name. Finally, Tables 8-10 give

the three reports generated by POSTPRO.

83
21 75

W3W3 i

i. 2

w £ w 2 7 8

W1W1 15 16

H3H3 26 27

H2H2 3? 33

S3S3 40 41

S2S2 46 47

L1L1 54 55

LXEX 6 5 66

SOW 3 76 1 S0W2 76 7

SOW! 76 1

5

EaS I 75 77

V3TT3 1 ?5

' W2H2 7 32

tel LI 3 5 54

H3S3 26 40

H252 32 46

S3S2. 4 0 48

S2L3 46 57

_aL_ Vj

0

' 50"

Jl _

50 _

‘ 6 4'C -1 999°

9

C 16“

•j 1

6

2ir—

C 52

or—“ —rn

L1EX 64 _ 65 & 16

qeof

_5

7

10

5

7

c.kV7

10

10

1

1r

i '6

0

11

6

0

6

3

11

Table 4. Input to SETUP

84
75 1

V3w3 1 2

*3 “ 4

b

6

~ 8 ~

9 - i 0

11

12 —

13

14

16

0 20

20

20

20

20

20

20

20

" 20

2 G

20

W3W3

W3W3

W5W3

W3W3

W2W2

W?W2

W2W2

... 3

-45

7

8

-g—

10

"

tl0

0

0

" 0

' 0

5*C

W2W2

11

12

“"15

15

l

c

w 2 wX

W 1 W 1

0

G

20

40

“fllwT lo rr c 40

W1W1 17 18 0 40

Kiwi 18 19 c 40

W1W1 19 20 0 40

WTWl 20 21 0 40

wiwi 21 22 rs 40

mr

22 “'23 0

"40

W1W1 23 24 0 4 0

WI'WI 2 4 25 0 40

H3H3 26 11 0 50

H3H3 ?i 28 0 50

H3H3 28 29 0 50

R3FT2T

~~?9 30

-- — — 50' H3H3 30 31 0 50

H2H2 32 33 "c 50

H2H2 33 34 0 50

H2H2 34 35 0 50

H2H2 35 36 0 50

TJ2 H 2 36 37

' 0 50

H2H2 37 38 0 50

H2H2 38 39 0 50

S3S3 40 41 0 50

S3S3 -

4I

- 42 0 50

5353 42 43 0 50

S 353” 43’ ' 44 - " 0

' 5B

S353 44 4b 0 50

5252 46 47 0 5C

52S2 47 46 0 50

S252 48 49 c 50

S 2 S 2 49 50 0 50

E?S2 50 El 6 5C

52S2 51 52 0 50

S252 52 53 9 50

L1L1 54 55 c 40

L1L1 55 56 0 MO

L1L1 56 57 0 4 0

LI LI

‘ —57"“ 56 0 4 0

L1L1 58 59 9 40

LlLl 69 60 49

L1L1 60 61 0 40

L1L1 61 62 0 40

L1L1 62 63 0 40

xm ~ ~~63 64 e 4C

LXEX 65 6b -1 99999

Table 5. Output from SETUP Input to GNET

85
tXF.X 86 67 -2

EXEX 67 68 -3

EXEX 68 69 -4

EXEX 69 70 -5

EXEX 70 71 -6

EXEX 71 72 “7

EXEX 72 73 -6

EXEX 73 74 “9

EXEX 74 75 -10

S0W3 76 1 0

S0W2 76 7 0

sowi 76 15

G -E5TST 75" IT " c W3H3 1 26 0

W3H3 ~~T 27 0

W3H3 3 28

u W3H3 4 29 c W 3H3 5 30 0

W3H3 6 31 c W2H2 7 32 0

W2H2 8 33 0

W2H2 9 34 r* W2H2 10 3b c W2H2 u 36 0

W2H2 12 37 c W2H2 13 36 0

W2H2 14 39 c W1L1 15 54 0

WlLl 16 55 c WlLl 1 7

56 ftV

will 18 57

V

W1L1 19 5b /U

W1L1 20 59 0

WlLl 21 60

u W1L1 22 61 G

WlLl 23 62 0

WlLl 24 63 fj WlLl 25 64 u " H353’ 40 "0 * H3S3 27 41 c H3S3 28 42 0

H3S3 29 43 0

H353 30 44 0

H3S3 31 45

V

H2S2 32 46 0

H2S2 33 47 0

H2S2 34 4b c H2S2 35 49 0

H2S2 36 50 0

H2S2 37 51 0

H262 38 52

L H2S2 39 53 0

S3S2 4 0 48

G

S3S2 41 49 0

53S2 42 50 0

S3S2 43 51 0

S3S2 44 52 0

S3S2 45 53 0

99999

90909

99999

99999

99990

99999

99999

99999

99999

16 " 16

20

5^1 0

TO

10

10

10

10

_ 10

To1 0

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

1C

10

10

10888ee _ 888e88

_6888888

'88

Table 5 (Continued)

86
S2L1 4 6 57 0 8

S2L1 47 56 0 8

S2L1

‘ ' '4a ~59“ 0 8“

S2L1 49 60 0 8

S2L1 50 61 0 8

S2L1 51 62 0 8

S2L1 52 63 0 8

S2L1 53 64 c 8

L1EX 54 65 0 16

L1EX 55 66 0 16

L1EX 56 67 0 16

L1EX 57 68 0 16

L1EX 56 69 0 16

L1EX 59 70 0 16

Li EX 60 71 c 16

L1EX 61 72 G 16

L1EX 62 73 0 16

L1EX 63 74 0 16

L1EX 64 75 0 16

Table 5 (Continued)

87
v : nodes

TOTAL "SUPPLIES 52 TOfAC DEMANDS’ = 52

150 ARCS

TIME- .09 SECONDS * PIVOTS= 02

1

NNE

FINAL SOLUTION...

FROM TO FLOW

1 2 6

7 8 6

15 16 TO

1 26 10

26 TT 2

2 27 6

7 32 10

52 33 2

8 33 b

26 40 8

27 41 p

32 46 n. 33 47 8

40 4 8 8

41 49 8

15 54 19

16 55 10

4b 67 8

47 68 8

46 59 pt 49 60 0

54 65 10

65 66 fo

55 66 1C

66 67 20

67 68 20

57 68 6

66 69 28

58

- ~6~9

- - S

69 70 36

59 70 6

70 71 44

60 71 8

71 72 52

72 '"73 “ 52

73 74 52

74 75 52

COST= -2434.

3?» _NNS=

Table 6. Output from GNET Input to POSTPRO

ntttalToS?

5 Of IP9=

88
6

1 1 W3

y

~ 7

15 15 Wl

26 25 H3

32 31 M2

40 38 S3

46 44 52

64

' H3‘ LI

o6 62 EX

Table 7. Input to POSTPRO

89
ARCS OROERFD f?Y DESTINATION

6 PEOPLE FROM. ;.i Z U w TO 1,: 3 IN PERIODS 1 through

6 PEOPLE FROM W2 To Vi 2 IN PERIODS 1 THROUGH

10 PEOPLE FROM Wi TO Wl IN periods ] THROUGH

10 PEOPLE FROM W3 TO H3 IN periods 1 THROUGH

2 PEOPLE FROM H3 To H3 IN periods 2 THROUGH

6 PFOFLF FROM IV 3 TO M3 In PERIODS - -V THROUGH

10 PEOPLE FROM W2 TO H2 in periods 1 through

2 PFOPLE From H? TO M2 IN PERIOD'S p THRO! IGH

6 PEOPLE FROM Vi 2 TO H2 IN PERIODS 2 THROUGH

8 PEOPLE FROM H3 10 S3 IN PERIODS ' or THROUGH

8 PEOPLE FROM H 3 TO S3 IN PERIODS 3 THROUGH

a PFOPCr'FRT?'1 ‘12

' ~ TO S? ~~nv'PERIODS ~ - r THROUGH'

8 PEOPLE FROM M2 TO S2 IN PERIODS 3 THROUGH

8 PEOPLE From S3 TO S2 IN PERIODS THR^1 IGH

8 PFOPLE FROM S3 TO S2 IN periods 4 through

io PEOPLE FROM IV 1 TO LI IN periods 1 THROUGH

10 PEOPLE FROM W3 TO LI IM periods 2 THROUGH

8 PEOPLE FROM S2 TO LI IN PERIODS 3 THROUGH

6 PFOPLE FROM S2 TO LI IN PERIODS 4 THROUGH

8 PEOPLE FROM S2 TO LI IN PERIODS L THROUGH

8 PEOPLE FROM S2 TO LI IN periods 6 THROUGH

10 PEOPLE FROM LI TO EX IN per ions 2 THROUGH

10 PEOPLE FROM EX TO FX IN periods 4 through

10 PEOPLE FROM LI TO EX IN periods 3 THROUGH

20 PEOPLE FROM EX TO FX IN periods 5 THROUGH

20 PEOPLE FROM EX TO EX IN periods 6 THROUGH

a PEOPLE FROM LI T 0 EX IN periods r THROUGH

23 PEOPLE FROM EX TO EX IN periods 7 through

a PEOPLE FROM LI TO EX IN periods 6 through

36 PEOPLE FROM EX TO EX IN pFriods p through

a PEOPLE FROM LI TO EX IN PF R I ODS 7 THROUGH

44 PEOPLE FROM EX TO EX IN PERIODS q THROUGH

8 PEOPLE FROM LI TO EX IN periods 8 THROUGH

52 PEOPLE FROM EX TO EX ' IN periods 10 through

52 PEOPLE FROM EX TO rx IN PERIODS 1

1

THROUGH

era people TROM EX

" TO FX IN per tors ' 12 through

52 PEOPLE FROM EX TO EX IN PERIODS 13 THROUGH

Table 8. First Output Report from POSTPRO

90

i

O'

~

-P

i>‘

^

'r

p

'j

cnP

U

vO

>

\>

“\J

*—

l

\>

\>

H*
ARCS ORcEPED BY ORIGIN'

6 PEOPLE FROM W3 TO W3 IN PERIODS 1 THROUGH

10 PEOPLE FROM W3 TO H3 IN periods 1 through

6 PEOPLE FROM W 3 T o H3 IN PERIODS r-j (T through

6 PE OPLF FROM W2 TO W2 IN PERIODS 1 THROUGH

TO PEOPLE FROM HE ' TO H2 IN PERIOD'S T THRDrETRr

b PEOPLE FROM w2 TO H? IN PERIODS 2 THROUGH

10 PEOPLE FROM W1 TO Wl IN PERIODS 1 THROUGH

io~PEoPLE FROM Wl TO LI IN PERIODS" 1 THROUGH

lo PEOPLE FROM a TO L 1 IN PERIODS r-t C THROUGH

2 PEOPLE FROM H3 r 0 M3 IN periods 2 THROUGH

6

' PEOPLE FROM H3 TO S3 IN periods ? through

a PEOPLE FROM H3 TO S3 IN PERIODS % THRO! IGH

cl PEOPLE FROM H 2 TO H2 IN PERIODS P THROUGH

3 'PEOPLE FROM H2 To S2 IN mFrIoDS" 2 THROUGH

8 PEOPLE FROM H2 TO S2 IN PERIODS m

Jt

< THROUGH

8 PEOPLE FROM S3 TO 52 IN PERIODS 3 THROUGH

6 PEOPLE FROM S3 TO S2 IN PERIODS 4 THROITgH

"6 PEOPLE FROM S2 TO LI IN""PERIODS 3 through

8 PEOPLE FROM S2 TO LI IN pep ions 4 through

o PEOPLE FROM S2 TO LI IN PERIODS 5 THROUGH

8 PEOPLE FROM S? TO LI IN PERIODS (y THROUGH

10 PEOPLE FROM LI TO EX IN PERIODS 2 THROUGH

ror"P lCPLe

'

’FROM LI TO EX “ In PERIOD'S

* ' % through

8 PEOPLE FROM L. 1 TO FX IN PERIODS r. ) THROUGH

8 PEOPLE FROM LI TO FX IN periods F THROl IGH

8 PEOPLE FROM LI TO FX IN df eiods 7 THROUGH

7T PEOPLE FROM LI TO FX "IN PERIODS f! through

10 PEOPLE" FROM EX

- TO FX' '"* IN periods 4 THROUGH

20 PEOPLE FROM EX TO EX IN PERIODS c. THROUGH

20 propLE FROM FX

~ TO FX IN periods 6 through

2 ti PEOPLE FROM EX ro FX IN PERIODS 7 THROUGH

3b PEOPLE FROM FX~ TO EX IN PERIODS n THROUGH

44 PEOPLE FROM EX TO dX IN PERIODS q through

B2“pe:oplt: FROM EX

' ~ TO" rx“ IN'‘PERIODS 10 THROUGH

52 PEOPLE FROM FX TO FX IN PERIODS 11 THROl 'GH

52 PEOPLE FROM LX TO EX IN PERIODS 12 THROUGH

52 PEOPLE FROM EX TO FX IN °ERIOn S 13 THROUGH

Table 9. Second Output Report from POSTPRO

1

1?

11

2

11?

2

2

3

?.2

3

4

t;y

4

h

h

7

3

4

h.7

4

O

4

5

F

7

flq

liI

?.3

91
RFPORT ON TOTAL AND '.AST C|..OW OVER EACH DISTINCT ARC ***** arC ****** ToTal mow *********** last floV ************

W3 TO W3 6

16

6

6 IN PERIODS

6 IN PERIODS

6 In periods

1 THROUGH

W3

V. 2

TO H3

TO W2

2 THROUGH

1 THROUGH

W2 TO H2 16 6 In PFRIOHS 2 THROUGH

wl TO I'll 10 io in periods 1 through

Vv i TO Li 20 io in periods 2 THROUGH

H3 TO M3 2 2 IN PERIODS 2 THROUGH

H3 TO S3 16 b In periods 3 THROUGH

H2 TO H2 2 2 IN periods 2 THROUGH

THT TO' SIT

'

1

6

£' Tn ^FRTODiT ~3 THROnGir

S3 TO S2 16 8 IN PERIODS 4 THROUGH

52 TO 11 32 b In periods 6 THROUGH

LI TO E X 62 8 IN PERIODS 8 THROUGH

EX TO E X 366 5? IN PERIODS 13 THROUGH

Table 10. Third Output Report from POSTPRO

92

oj

<\j

ro

<\j

to

in

hO'
6.0 CONCLUSIONS AND NEXT STEPS

In this section we summarize our previous discussion, draw certain conclusions, and discuss appropriate next steps in the development of this

network analysis approach.

Model Descriptors, Capabilities, and Limitations

As the key to our work is the dynamic model, we first list, and discuss

one by one, some descriptors of the model which should be kept in mind in

understanding its capabilities and limitations. The descriptors are

as follows:

1. Prescriptive (and not behavioral)

2 . Linear

3. Deterministic

4. Discrete Time

5. Computer Reliant

6. "Perfect knowledge," or "Forecast," of "future"

We have seen that the dynamic model finds a routing of people through

the building from the workplaces to the exits that minimizes the time

to evacuate the building (actually by minimizing turnstile costs as a

surrogate measure for time to evacuate the building.) As such, the model

prescribes, or recommends, an "ideal" course of action, providing a

93
standard of comparison, or benchmark. (For example, an individual responsible for running evacuation drills of Building 101 would be able to

judge how well he had done by comparing his time to evacuate the building

with the time predicted by the model. ) It is difficult to represent

behavioral aspects in the model, although in some cases the initial

design of the model may reflect some behavioral aspects, such as, for

example, not permitting the use of side exits in the model due to the

fact that they are seldom used in reality. Nevertheless, it should be

realized that the model is really not a behavioral model, and is thus

limited to the extent that behavioral aspects are important. For example,

the model cannot be used to predict the time lapse between individuals

hearing a fire alarm and actually beginning to evacuate the building.

The dynamic model is linear in its mathematics. This means, for example,

that for each node, the total flow into that node is equal to the total

flow out; for each arc, the flow in that arc must lie between zero and a

fixed arc capacity. Then the model minimizes a linear cost involving

turnstiles, computed by multiplying cost per turnstile arc by the arc flow

and adding the resultant costs over all turnstile arcs. It should be

recognized that in reality there are some nonlinearities which occur in

building evacuation, e.g.

,

in connection with congestion phenomena. For

example, in a very crowded stairwell the flow rate is smaller than in an

uncrowded stairwell. An ideal evacuation model would reflect this fact

by having arc flow rate capacities vary suitably with arc flows, and not

be independent of arc flows. Further, with reference to the static model,

94
arc traversal times are chosen independently of arc capacities and of arc

flows. In reality the time to traverse, for example, a stairwell, will

depend upon how crowded the stairwell is.

Although reality presents some nonlinearities that the current network

models do not reflect, one should keep in mind that the use of modeling

techniques always involves a tradeoff between realism and tractability

,

i.e., the ease of obtaining problem insights from the model. The more

realistic a model is, the less computationally tractable it is, and the

more difficult it is to obtain problem insights by using the model. The

linearity of the dynamic model permits the modeling of problems with

literally hundreds of thousands of arcs, a necessary capability, considering the possible size of dynamic models of large buildings. We

believe that models should be kept as simple as possible consistent

with their use, and that linear models should be exploited in full before nonlinear models are considered. In particular, it does not yet

seem appropriate to consider introducing nonlinearities into the network

flow models.

There can be, of course, a great deal of uncertainty associated with

building evacuation, including random variation in flow rates and

arc traversal times, particularly if the evacuation takes place as the

result of a fire or other unnerving event. The fact that our current

network models are deterministic, that is, do not recognize probabilistic

variation, is unquestionably a limitation, and a suitable topic for

95
further research. We point out again, however, that possible gains in

realism obtained by reflecting randomness in the model may well be offset

by the resultant additional complexity and loss in computational

tractability

.

Ideally, one would like a model in which time is treated as continuous;

there are difficulties and approximations which are intrinsic to the use

of discrete time periods. In theory, one could construct dynamic network

flow models where each time interval is as short as necessary—one second,

for example. The resultant difficulty, of course, is an increase in the

number of arcs of the network, causing the solution of the dynamic network

model to require more computer time and "memory space" than would be the

case if time periods were greater than a second. Again there is a tradeoff between model realism and model tractability.

It is impossible, of course, to solve large network flow problems without

use of the computer. There is some hope, however, of developing smaller,

auxiliary models, which may not be computer reliant. One such model is

given in Appendix B of this report; the model addresses the question of the

allocation of people to stairwells that will minimize the time to evacuate

the building. Nevertheless, there appears to be at present little

prospect of having a model as flexible and general as the dynamic network

flow model, that could be easily used by individuals such as building

inspectors or fire department personnel who would not have ready access

to computers. Ideally, one would like to provide such individuals with

96
handbooks of graphs and charts they could use, and conceivably this may

eventually be possible as further experience is gained in modeling

evacuation problems, but such is not yet the case.

It is easy to fall into the habit of thinking of the dynamic model as

one which evolves in time, with the first time period being worked with

first, the second time period being worked with second, etc. Actually

the model does not work this way at all: it operates on a representation

of the building evacuation problem which simultaneously considers all the

time periods of interest. At the outset, the model "knows” the relevant

capacity and travel time information for all time periods. In this sense,

the model assumes perfect knowledge of the future. Alternatively, one

can consider that the model works with a forecast of the future, in which

case it follows, of course, that the reliability of the model outputs

is dependent upon the quality of the forecast. This dependency can,

and should, be lessened by working with a number of different forecasts,

but can never be completely avoided.

Using the Building 101 Model.

Next, we address the question of the use of our models by others. The

particular dynamic model we have developed is specific to Building 101,

and would not be directly useful to others unless they were interested in

an identical building. However, the procedures we have developed for

97
constructing the static and dynamic models, together with computer

programs given in Section 5-0 for facilitating the use of these models,

should he helpful to others wishing to construct dynamic network flow

models of building evacuation. In particular, the Static Model Construction

Procedure, and the Dynamic Model Construction Procedure presented earlier,

should be directly useful in modeling building evacuations, regardless

of the building of interest.

In Perspective, and Next Steps

It may perhaps be helpful at this point to offer a perspective on our

work. To this end, consider Figure 21. As the figure illustrates,

having people in buildings leads to evacuation problems. These problems

may be studied in many ways. The way we have chosen involves constructing network models of a particular building, which has served as a

prototype building for our initial work. We first construct a static

network model, and then expand it to obtain a dynamic model. Using a

computer representation of the dynamic model, we solve it by using a

particular transshipment problem algorithm, in the process having to

transform the computer representation of the dynamic model from one

closely related to the building to one which is in a proper input format

for the algorithm. The computer algorithm provides an output of one

line of print for every arc of the dynamic network in which there is a

positive flow, stating the amount of the flow, and identifying the arc

by a pair of numbers which specify the nodes at the tail and head of the

98
PEOPLE BUILDINGS

EVACUATION

Cl

PROBLEMS

o

NETWORK MODELS

Q

OF SAME:

V

STATIC

V

DYNAMIC

COMPUTER MODELS OF SAME

ALGORITHM

o

Q

ALGORITHM OUTPUT

SOLUTION

Q

SUMMARIES:

DYNAMIC NETWORK

STATIC NETWORK

Figure 21 IN PERSPECTIVE

99
arc. It is then necessary to transform the algorithm output into an

output directly related to the building. Such outputs can be dynamic as

well as static. The run summaries given in Appendix A illustrate

such static output, and details of the output formats appear in Section

6 . 0 .

To this point the programs we have developed are somewhat buildingspecific, while the computer code of the solution procedure we have used

is one made available to us as a professional courtesy, and available to

others only with the approval of its developers. It should thus be

evident that our procedures at this point are certainly not sufficiently

general that they can be taken "off the shelf" and used by others for

modeling the evacuation of buildings of interest to them. What should

be useful, however, is the modeling process we have developed. Others

having the necessary familiarity with computer programming and network

flow optimization should find it a relatively direct task to use the

procedures we have developed for modeling the evacuation of other buildings.

In the long run, of course, what is desired is a computer program system

sufficiently general that it can be used by others who do not wish to be

concerned with computer programming and network optimization. To this

end, therefore, we now discuss the further steps which we believe necessary

to make our network modeling approach more useful.

A larger building than Building 101 should be modeled, in order to gain

some feel for how large a building can be modeled at a computationally

100
reasonable price. Further, one might want to consider modeling a

building for which evacuation data are available, such as, for example,

one of the buildings studied by Pauls, in order to compare "optimized"

evacuations with observed evacuations.

In conjunction with additional modeling, the development of user-oriented

software merits consideration. Automation of the Dynamic Model

Construction Procedure would be most helpful, so that general static

network models of buildings could be easily converted to the corresponding dynamic network models. Likewise, considerable thought should

be given to a "post-processor", more general than the existing one,

for converting the output of the transshipment algorithm into a buildingrelated form which can easily provide insight into the output of the

dynamic model. In the same vein it appears worthwhile to consider

actually animating the output of the dynamic model, perhaps using a

Video Display Terminal, so that the model results can be more easily displayed and explained. In addition, the prospect of large scale use of

the network modeling approach would merit considering the development of

a special-purpose algorithm to solve the dynamic network flow problem

more efficiently by exploiting the special structure it has as a result

of being obtained by replicating the static model. As an extra note,

means of explicitly displaying waiting, such as waiting for elevators

as illustrated in Figure 22, should be developed. For Building 101,

due to the large ratio of building space to building population, relatively little waiting occurred in the use of the dynamic model, and

therefore means of obtaining insight into waiting has perhaps been a bit

101
TIME PERIOD

Figure 22 WAITING FOR ELEVATORS ON FIFTH FLOOR, RUN 9

102
neglected in our work to date.

While a number of computer program and algorithm developments thus merit

consideration, there also are questions of modeling and theory to be

pursued. For example, it should be possible to develop a number of

guidelines to aid in choosing among alternative possibilities in constructing

static models: there can easily be more than one static model of a

given building, with consequent variations in model accuracy, computational

efficiency, and information available from the dynamic model. Further,

the fact that buildings tend to fall into various rather distinct categories,

and to have common features, suggests it is possible to develop a "catalog"

of static model parts, from which a modeler might pick and choose in

constructing a static model of a particular building. It has been mentioned

above that the current dynamic flow models are deterministic, and employ

discrete time intervals. It seems of interest to explore to what extent

data uncertainty, or other randomness associated with evacuation problems,

would effect the accuracy of the model; hopefully it will be possible to

account for randomness, to some extent, directly in future models. The

effect of time-interval length upon the accuracy of the dynamic model

should be studied. The use of turnstile costing to evacuate a building

in a minimum number of time periods has worked well in our experience,

but this approach is rather indirect, and one wonders if there may not

exist more direct approaches which would work as well and lend themselves

more readily to theoretical analysis. As an associated question, given

some prediction of the spread of smoke and/or fire in a building, if

some meaningful measurement of the resultant undesirability of being in

103
particular locations in a building at particular times can be obtained,

these "costs" could be converted to arc costs in the dynamic network

model, in which case evacuating the building to minimize the total cost

might quite literally suggest a safest building evacuation. (Run numbers

11 through 15 reflect a rough first attempt at attaching costs to being

on particular floors during the evacuation of a building.)

There are variations of the building evacuation model which evacuate the

maximum number of people from a building in a given number of time periods;

see [6], for example. Such models can be solved by algorithms called

"maximal dynamic flow" algorithms. In some cases these algorithms actually

solve the dynamic problem by solving a variant of the static network problem, with consequent substantial savings in computer run time. In

effect, with such maximum flow problems, one assumes an infinite number

of people available, allowing them to be in the various workplaces in

any manner, and then maximizes the total number of people which can

be evacuated from, the building in a fixed number of time periods. (The

need to assume an arbitrarily large number of people available in the

building arises because it may not be clear beforehand how many people

can be evacuated.) Our experience with such models has been a bit disappointing. The model evacuates no more people from the upper floors than

is a requirement of the problem statement, and routes as many people

as possible from the lowest populated floor, uses the stairwells to

capacity, and routes the people out of the exits which are the shortest

walking times from the stairwell doors. In short, the answers given

104
by the algorithm are obvious by inspection. It may well be, however,

that for a more complicated building than Building 101, which has less

svmmetrical loadings of people on floors with respect to the stairwells,

and less symmetrical placements of stairwells in the building, that the

solutions would no longer be as obvious. Further, any procedure which

can solve dynamic network flow problems without imposing the burden of

constructing a dynamic network, merits a certain amount of respect, if

nothing else.

Just as aggregation of individual offices into composite workplaces

simplifies the development of the network models, one could consider

the more drastic step of having composite floors, combining together

two or more (pairwise) adjacent floors when they are quite similar. We

suspect this procedure may work well; if it does, the computational

savings consequent appear attractive. The literature on such approaches

(referred to generally as network reduction methods) should be investigated for applicability or adaptability; if nothing relevant is found,

devising original procedures for our purposes should be considered.

The problem of finding insightful ways to present the (substantial) output

of the dynamic model has been mentioned previously. Use of animation to

help in presenting such output, while attractive and promising, is

basically a mechanical/electrical approach. We suggest that a more fundamental approach also be investigated. To make this suggestion more

concrete, let us return to the maximum flow problem. There is associated

105
theory for this problem which specifies the amount by which the maximum

flow could be increased if the flow rate capacity of any arc were to be

increased by one unit. Obviously it would be of value to know those

arcs whose unit increase in flow rate capacity would cause the greatest

increase in the maximum flow, as such an arc is, in a very real sense,

,? the" bottleneck. The existence of such a theory for the maximum flow

problem suggests that analogous theoretical results may be obtainable

for the dynamic flow problem of evacuating a building in minimum time.

This could permit automating, to some extent, the analysis of the output

of the dynamic model, while being assured that critical aspects of the

output are identified and considered.

At present, besides the rather detailed static and dynamic network

procedures for representing buildings, we also have, at the other

extreme, a quite simple model, virtually graphical in nature (as discussed

in the Appendix B) , which specifies allocations of people to evacuation

routes that minimize the time to evacuate the building. The existence

of models at these two extremes of complexity naturally suggests that

models of intermediate complexity can be developed, which can augment

and/or supplement the dynamic network models, while providing more information than the graphical model. The graphical model, in effect,

assumes that any allocation of people to evacuation routes is allowable;

such an assumption may be invalid, of course, if, for a building evacuation

problem certain evacuation routes are available only to certain floors, such

as stairwells which serve only a wing of the building, or do not extend to

the top floor of a building. At the other extreme, the dynamic network

106
model permits any routing of people to the exits which is permitted by

the directions implied by the arcs, taking into account the fact that if

a unit of flow wants to exit a building from an exit remote from the

workplace where it originates, a substantial travel time will be

involved. We believe it will be possible to develop models with intermediate

assumptions as to which exits will be accessible from which workplaces,

which avoid the naive assumption of complete accessibility at one extreme

and the complete detail of "route interconnectedness" at the other

extreme, which can be made more readily usable than the dynamic network

flow model, and more realistic than the graphical model. We further envision that such models, apart from ones we already have in mind, will

begin to suggest themselves in a natural way as further experience is

gained in working with the dynamic network model.

107

REFERENCES

[1] Bellmore, M. , Vemuganti, R. R., "On Multi-Conunodity Maximal Dynamic

Flows," Operations Research , Vol. 21, 10-21, 1973.

[2] Bookbinder, J. H., Sethi, S. P., "The Dynamic Transportation Problem:

a Survey," Working Paper 77-12, Faculty of Management Studies, University

of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, 1977.

[3] Bradley, G. H., Brown, G. G., Graves, G. W., "Design and Implementation

of Large Scale Primal Transportation Algorithms," Management Science , Vol. 24, 1-34, 1977.

[4] Christof ides , N., Graph Theory: an Algorithmic Approach , Academic

Press, New York, NY, 1975.

[5] Design and Construction of Building Exits , Washington, DC, U. S.

Department of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards, Misc. Publication

M151, 1935.

[6] Ford, Jr., L. R., Fulkerson, D. R. , Flows in Networks , Princeton

University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1962.

[7] Fruin, J. J., Pedestrian Planning and Design , Metropolitan Association

of Urban Designers and Environmental Planners, Inc., P. 0. Box 722,

Church Street Station, New York, NY 10008, 1971.

[8] Glover, F., Karney, D., Klingman, D., "Implementation and Computational

Comparisons of Primal, Dual and Primal-Dual Computer Codes for Minimum

Cost Network Flow Problems," Networks , Vol. 4, 191 & ff., 1974.

[9] Glover, F., Karney, D., Klingman, D., Napier, A., "A Computational

Study on Start Procedures, Basis Change Criteria and Solution Algorithms

for Transportation Problems," Management Science , 20, 793 & ff., 1974.

[10] Grinold, R. C., Marshall, K. T. , Manpower Planning Models , Elsevier

North-Holland, Inc., NY, 1977.

[11] Hitchcock, F. L., "The Distribution of a Product from Several Sources

to Numerous Localities," Journal of Mathematical Physics , Vol. 20,

224-230, 1941.

[12] Johnson, B. M. , Pauls, J. L., "Study of Stair and Elevator Use in

Jeanne Mance Building, Ottawa—an Interim Report," National Research

Council of Canada, Division of Building Research, Ottawa, Canada, 1978.

[13] Koopmans, T. C., "Optimum Utilization of the Transportation System,"

Proceedings of the International Statistical Conferences, 1947,

Washington, DC (Vol. 5 reprinted as Supplement to Econometrica , Vol. 17,

1949) .
[14] Merchant, D. K. , Nemhauser, G. L. , "A Model and an Algorithm for the

Dynamic Traffic Assignment Problem," Transportation Science , Vol. 12,

No. 3, 183-199, 1978.

[15] Minieka, E., Optimization Algorithms for Networks and Graphs , Marcel

Dekker, Inc., New York, NY, 1978.

[16] Pauls, J. L., Jones, B. K. , "Case Studies of Building Evacuations"

and "Building Evacuation Findings & Recommendations," submitted

for publication in Behavior in Fires , D. Canter (ed.), J. Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 1978.

[17] Pauls, J. L. , "Management and Movement of Building Occupants in Emergencies," National Research Council of Canada, Division of Building

Research, NRCC 16845, DDR Paper No. 788, Ottawa, Canada, September 1977

[18] Pauls, J. L. , "Movement of People in Building Evacuations," Chapter 21

of Human Response to Tall Buildings , D. J. Conway (ed.), Strausburg, PA

Dowden, Hutchinson, & Ross, Community Development Series, Vol. 34, 1977

[19] Potts, R. P., Oliver, R. M., Flow in Transportation Networks , Academic

Press, New York, NY, 1972.

[20] Roytman, M. Y., Principles of Fire Safety Standards for Building Construction, published for the National Bureau of Standards, U. S. Depart

ment of Commerce, and the National Science Foundation, Washington, DC

by Amerind Publishing Co., Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India, 1975.

[21] Stahl, F. , Archea, J. , "An Assessment of the Technical Literature on Emergency Egress from Buildings," NBSIR 77-1313.

[22] Stahl, F. I., "Simulating Human Behavior in High-Rise Building Fires:

Modeling Occupant Movement Through a Fire-Floor form Initial Alert

to Safe Egress," NBS-GCR 77-92.

[23] Wagner, H. M. , Principles of Operations Research, 2nd Edition, Prentice

Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1975.

[24] Wardrup, J. G., "Some Theoretical Aspects of Road Traffic Research,"

Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers , Part II, 325-378, 1952

[25] Wilkenson, W. L. , "An Algorithm for Universal Maximal Dynamic Flows in

a Network," Operations Research , Vol. 19, No. 7, Nov. -Dec. 1971.
APPENDIX A

GRAPHICAL SUMMARY OF RUNS

Figure A-l, Run 1 Summary
Figure A-l (Continued)
Figure A-2, Run 2 Summary
Figure A-2 (Continued)
Figure A-3, Run 3 Summary
(37 3,30

Figure A-3 (Continued)
^

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10

Figure A-4, Run 4 Sununary
Figure A-4 (Continued)
Figure A- 5, Run 5 Summary
Figure A-5 (Continued)
Figure A-6, Run 6 Summary
Figure A-6 (Continued)
Figure A-7, Run 7 Summary
Figure A-7 (Continued)
Figure A-8, Run 8 Summary
Figure A-8 (Continued)
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Figure A-9, Run 9 Summary
Figure A-9 (Continued)
Figure A-10, Run 10 Summary
Figure A-10 (Continued)
Figure A-ll, Run 11 Summary
Figure A-ll (Continued)
Figure A-12, Run 12 Summary
Figure A-12 (Continued)
Figure A-13, Run 13 Summary
Figure A-13 (Continued)
Figure A-14, Run 14 Summary
Figure A-14 (Continued)
Figure A-15, Run 15 Summary
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Figure A-15 (Continued)
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Figure A-16 (Continued)
Figure A-17, Run 17 Summary
Figure A-17 (Continued)
APPENDIX B

A SIMPLE GRAPHICAL PROCEDURE FOR ESTIMATING THE

MINIMUM TIME TO EVACUATE THE BUILDING

This discussion presents a simple graphical procedure for estimating

the minimum time to evacuate a building.

The evacuation problem of interest is illustrated by Figure B-l. There

are n evacuation routes, x,. people (a number to be determined) will be

evacuated via route j, and K people will be evacuated in total. For

each route j it is assumed that the time to evacuate x^. people via route

j is given by a known "route evacuation time function," say t^(x^.). Since

the building is not evacuated until all the routes are evacuated, the time

to evacuate the building, say z, is the longest of the route evacuation

times t^(x^), ..., t^x^). The problem of interest is to compute the

minimum building evacuation time, say z*, as well as the corresponding

"route allocation," that is, the allocation of people to routes, say

x*, ..., x*, yielding a minimum building evacuation time.

Several assumptions are needed about the route evacuation time functions.

For each route j it is assumed (Assumption 1) that t^(0) = 0, that is,

zero people are evacuated in zero time. For each route j it is further

assumed (Assumption 2) that t_. (x_. ) is a continuous function (it has no

"jumps") and (Assumption 3) that if y_. is greater than x^ , then t_.(y_.)

is greater than t . (x . )

:

in other words, each route evacuation time
function is strictly increasing. Assumption 3 may be paraphrased as

follows: the larger the number of people using a route, the greater the

time to evacuate the route. In order for Assumptions 2 and 3 to hold,

it is sufficient that the slope of each route evacuation time function

always be positive.

The graphical solution procedure can now be stated.

(l) On one side of a piece of translucent paper, graph the axes,

representing the horizontal axis (which has units of number of people)

by a dotted line, and representing the vertical axis (which has units

of time) by a dashed line.

(2) In the first quadrant defined by the axes just constructed,

graph each route evacuation time function. Call this graph Graph 1.

(See Figure B-2.

)

(3) Turn Graph 1 face down. While keeping Graph 1 face down, rotate

the graph so that the vertical axis as seen through the translucent

paper is now the dotted line (people), while the horizontal axis is

now the dashed line (time). Leave Graph 1 in the position it now

has from this point on.

Notice that the graph of the route j evacuation time function—when

viewed through the paper—gives the number of people, say p.(z.),

J J which can be evacuated in a time of z.. For each route j it is

J convenient to call p.(z.) the "people evacuation function" for route

J J j. Call Graph 1—as viewed through the paper—Graph 2. (See Figure B-3.

)
(h) On Graph 2, construct the total (over all routes) of the people

evacuation functions, and denote this function by P(z). P(z) is

just the total number of people that can be evacuated via all routes

in a time of z, so that P(z) = p^(z) + ... + p^(z).

(5) Using Graph 2, identify the point K on the people axis, and

use the function P(z) to find the point z* on the time axis for which

K = P(z*)

.

The time z* is the minimum time to evacuate the building.

Continuing to use Graph 2, for each route j read on the people axis

the number of people, say x*, for which x* = p.(z*). The route

J J J allocation x*, ..., x* gives the minimum building evacuation time,

z*: any other allocation will give a building evacuation time greater

than z*

.

As a simple linear example, suppose there are two evacuation routes,

that route 1 has an evacuation flow rate of h2 people per minute,

while route 2 has an evacuation flow rate of 18 people per minute.

Thus the number of minutes needed to evacuate x^ people via route 1

is given by t^(x^) = x^A2, while the number of minutes needed to

evacuate x^ people via route 2 is given by t^x^) = x^/lQ. Figure

B-2 illustrates Graph 1 for this example. Note each route evacuation

time function satisfies Assumptions 1, 2, and 3. Figure B-3 illustrates

Graph 2 for this example, showing the people evacuation functions

p^(z^) and p^z^). For route 1, since h2 people can be evacuated

per minute, the number of people which can be evacuated in minutes
is just p^(z^) = 42z . Likewise, for route 2, p^(z^) = l8z 0

. Thus the

total number of people which can be evacuated via both routes in

z minutes is given by P(z) = p (z) + Pg(z) = 42z + l8z = 60z. If

the building has K = 420 people, then the time z* for which K = P(z*)

is computed from 4-20 = 60z*, giving z* = 7 minutes as the minimum time

to evacuate the building. Figure B-3 illustrates P(z), K, and z*.

From Figure B-3 it also follows that x* = p^(z*) = 42z* = 294, while

x* = p2 (z*) = l8z* = 126, and so the allocation of 294 people to

route 1 and 126 people to route 2 yields a minimum building evacuation

time.

Note, for the example, that each of the two routes is completely

evacuated in the same time, z* = 7 minutes. It is in fact true for

the general problem, because x* = p.(z*), that x* people are evacuated

J J J via route j in a time of z * , so that all of the routes are completely

evacuated in the same time, z*.
People

FIGURE B-l: Illustration of the Evacuation Problem
I

i Time

i

l

- 4

i

i —

+ •~i People

L
(V)*

-

• People ^

4--

APPENDIX C

LISTING OF SETUP, CHECK, AND POSTPRO

Listing of SETUP

IMPLICIT INTEGER (A-Z)

0UT=7

READ (5*100) MARCS* NODES

100 FORMAT (215)

WRITE (OUT* 105) NODES

105 FORMAT (I5*4X»*1»)

DO 200 I=1»NARCS

READ (5*115) NAME * OR IG*DEST, COST * CAP* NUMB

115 FORMAT (A4»2X»2I6*gy *3110)

DO 120 J=1*NUMR

WRITE ( OUT *115) NAME»ORIG*DEST*COST»CAP

0RIG=0RIG+1

DEST-DEST-H

120 CONTINUE

20 0 CONTINUE

ENDFILE OUT

STOP

END
Listixi£_of CHECK

IMPLICIT INTEGER {.a-Z)

END=C

' FLAG=0

OUT=6

READ ( 5? ICO ) MODES

100 FORMAT (15)

ARC= » * RECORDS©

ACOUNT=Q

105 READ C5*11G*END=2G9) TARC* TOR I6» TDEST * TCOST »TCAP

RECORDsRECORD+1

110 FORMAT CA6»2I6»2X»2I10)

IF (TARC .EG. ARC) GO TO t4p

IF (RECORD .EG, 1) GO TO 130

11 5 AC 0UNT=AC0UMT+1 _

WRITE ( OUT f 120 ) ARC » ORIG* DEBT » COST » ACOUNt

1 2 0 FORMAT (1H »A6r2I6»2X»2 110» 15)

IF ( END .EG. 1) GO TO 210

130 ARC sTARC

ORIG=TORIG

DESTsTPEST

COSTsJCOST

CARSTCAP

ACOUNT=0

GO TO 165

140 ACOUNT=ACOUNT+l

IF ( T 0_R I G ,NE. ORIG+ ACOUNT) Go TO 150 _

IF (TARC.EQ, »SA09 * .AND. TORI G.EQ. 258. AND. TDEST. EO. 384) GO TO 142

IF ( TARC.EQ. «SB0 9_ « .AND. TO RIG® E Q. 28 8. AND. TDEST. EQ. 416) GO TO 142

IF (TDEST ® ME • DEST+ACOUNT) GO TO 150

14 2 IF (COST .GE

0 ) GO TO 1 4 q

IF ( ARC .EQ •

• 2TRF * . AND. fORlG.FQ. 2481 . AND. TDEST. EQ. 2482. AND, TCOST

1 eEQ.«218) GO TO 148 _

IF "(TCOST •NE." COST-ACOUNT) GO TO 150

GO TO 148

146 IF (TCOST . NE • COST) GO TO 150

148 IF (T CAP »EQ. CAP) GO TO 1U5

150 WRITE ( 6» 160 ) RECORD > ACOUNT # ARC r ORIG f DEST »COST » CAP » TARC » TOR IG p 1 _ TDEST » TCOST r TCAP _ 160 FORMAT (* OB AD DATA IN RECORD NO. *»I5»» WHICH IS RF CORD NO. »»I5»

1 » FOR T HIS ARC.VC lH »A6 » 2 16 »_2X » 2 1 10 ) ) FLAG=FLAG+1

GO TO 105

20u END=1

GO TO 115 _ __ _ _ 210 WRITE ( OUT r 215) FLAG

215 FORMAT (» *** NO. OF BAD RECORDS IS **I5)

STOP

END
Listing of Main Program of POSTPRO

IMPLICIT INTEGER (A-?)

REATTc65TV

PARAMETER MAXN=20G3 t MAX A=5000

DIMENSION NAME ( M AXNT7LOWETR TMA X N ) t OEPSET ( M AX>TJ

DIMENSION NAMFO(MAXN) #FIRST(MAXN) .LAST(MAXN)

“DIMENSION FLOW ( MAXA ) » ORTG(MAXA) rDEST(MAXA) »PO(MAXA 77 P'OVM AX A

)

DIMENSION NEXT ( MAXA)

DIMENSION TITLE ( 20

)

DATA YES/4HYES /7NO/4HNO /

DATA FINAL/4MPINA/#FR0M/4MFR0M/»C0ST/FHC0ST/

DATA DUMY/4HDUMY/ » TRNC/4HTRNC/ * TRNF/4HTRNF/ , TRMS/4HTPNS/

0UT=6

C

C *** UNIT 47 IS AN ALTERNATE PRINT FILFt USED IN THIS PROGRAM

C *** TO KEEP THE REGULAR OUTPUT SEPARATE FROM THE QUESTIONS

C *** TO THE USER REGARDING WHICH OUTPUT REPORTS ARE DESIRED.

C

ARC-0

NGR1GS=0

READ (5»5) NODES

5 FORMAT (15)

READ ( 5 » 10) ( LOWER ( N ) » OFFSET ( M ) » NAME ( N

)

t N=1 » NODES

)

1C FORMAT (I5r 5X»I5»1X»A6>

INDO=NODES

INDD=NODES

5 b READ (5»55»END=350) (TITLE(I)ff = 1 720T

5b FORMAT (lX»lDA4tA3)

Write" touTrss) (title(I) » j=ir2C)

IF (TITLE(l) .NE. FINAL) GO To 50

" READ ( 5 >55 ) (TITLE (7171 = 1 » 20

)

IF (TITLE(l) .EG. FROM) GO TO 7 q

WRITE (6»65> (TITLF(I) »I = D20)

65 FORMAT ( * OERROR IN INPUT FILE. CARD READ IS AS FOLLOWS: */lX»

1 19A4, A3)

STOP

70 READ (5»55»EMD=2Q0> TITLE ( 1

)

IF (TITLE ( 1 ) .NE. COST) GO TO 73

RE AT) ( «> # 7 1 ) COSTV

71 FORMAT (6X»F12JL0)

WR I TE ( 01 IT > 72 ) COST

V

72 FORMAT (///’COST =_* *Fi2.0)

GO TO 7C

73 READ (0*74) TORIG* TDEST * TFLOW

"74 FORMAT ( I5*2X, 15* IX* 110)

IF (TORIG .LT. LOWER ( INDO) ) GO TO 76

IF (INDO .EQ. NODES) GO TO 80

IF (TORIG .LT. LOWER (IND0»1 ) ) GO TO SO

76 CALL SEARCH (TOR I G » I ND0 * L6 WEP * NOD FS

)

BO IF (TDEST .LT. LOWER (IMDD)) Go TO 82

IF l iNDD .EQ. NODES) GO TO 85

IF ( TDFST .LT. LOWER ( INDD+1 ) ) GO TO 85

82 CALL SEARCH (TDEST 7l NDD* LOWER » NODES)

85 IF (INDO .LT. 1) GO TO 100

IF (IndD .LT.~1) GO TO 10

j

APC=APC+1

RoTA’RCTrTDR iG^OFFSET ( INDO ) +1

NAME1=NA-E( INDO)
Listing of Main Program of POSTPRO (Continued)

IF (NAMFl .EQ. TRNC .OR. NAME 1 .EO. TRNF .OP. flAMEl ,F0. TRNS)

1 P0( ARC >=P0( ARC >-l

PDTARC1=TDE'ST-0FFSET( INDD ) ORIG(ARC)=NAMECINDO)

BEST ( ARC )=NAME( INDD)

FLOW ( ARC )=TFLOW

IF (NAME ( INDO) .EQ. DUMY .OR. NAME ( INDD) .EG. OUMY)

1 PD ( ARC ) =PD ( ARC ) +1

’ IF (NOR 1 3$ .GT. 0) GO TO 90

N0RIGS=1 3 NAMEO (I

) “NAME ( INDO > ~

FIRST ( 1 ) -1

LAST ( 1 ) “1

NEXT ( 1 ) "

0

GO TO 70

90 TNAME=NAME( INDO)

DO 92 N=1 * N0RIG5

NSAVE-N

IF (TNAME .EQ. NAMEO (N) ) 60 TO 94

92 CONTINUE

NOR I GS-NOR I GS+

1

NAMEO ( NOR T G5 ) =TN AME

FIRST (N0RIG5)=ARC

LAST (NORIGS) = ARC

NEXT ( ARC”) =0

GO TO 70

94 TLAST=LAST(MSAVE>

NEXT ( TL AST ) = ARC

NEXT (ARC ) =0

LAST ( MSA VE)=ARC

“GO TO 70

1 0 6 WRI TE ( OUT >

1

OF ) TQR I G > TDE S

T

.TFLQW

105 FORMAT (’OUNABLE TO RECOGNIZE ORIGIN AND/OR DESTINATION OF THE ’ 1 ’FOLLOWING ARCS /IX , 15 * 2X * I 5* IX * I 10

)

GO TO 70

' - - 200 NARCSrARC

C

“ WRITE (6*205

)

205 FORMAT (*0D0 YOU WANT A REPORT OF ALL ARCS ORDFpEP BY ’ 1 ’DESTINATION? YES OR NO*)

READ (5*210) REPLY

21G FORMAT (A4)

if (reply .fq. no) go jo 2 B 0

WRITE ( OUT * 220)

220 FORMAT ( 1H1 * 21X* * ARCS OR DER ED RY DESTINATION *//)

WRITE (OUT » 230) (FLOW (ARC) * ORIG ( ARC) » DEST (ARC) * PO ( ARC ) rPD( ARC)

1 » ARC=1»NARCS)

230 FORMAT ( I10» * PEOPLE FROM * » A6* ’ TO ’ *A6» • IN PERIODS’ *15*

1 • THROUGH’ *15)

250 CONTINUE

C WRITE (6*255)

“255 FORMAT (»0D0 YOU WANT A REPORt OF ALL ARCS ORDERED BY ’ 1 ’ORIGIN? YES OR NO*)

READ (5*210) RFPLY

IF (REPLY .EQ. NO) GO TO 3^C

WRITE (OUT » 260)

261 FORMAT ( 1 HI * 21X * ARCS ORDERED BY ORIGIN’/)

DO 280 N= 1 * NORIGS

WRITE ( OUT * 265

)
Listing of Main Program of POSTPRO (Continued)

265 FORMAT (1H ) ARC=FIRST(N)

~270 WRITE ( OUT

-

* 230 V FLOW ( ARC) »OR IG( ARC) » DESK ARC) rPO(ARC) » 1 PD(ARC)

ARC=NEXT ( ARC

)

IF (A PC .GT. 0) GO TO ?70

280 CONTINUE

350 CONT INUE

355 FORMAT (*000 YOU WANT A REPORT ON TOTAL AND LAST FLOW OVER EACH

I /’DISTINCT ARC?-“YETS OR NO *7

READ (5*210) REPLY

IF (REPLY .EG. NOT GO TO 400

359 WRITE (OUT *360)

36T format-p 1 * * 10X * * REPORT on total and last flow over each » 1 ^DISTINCT ARC*//* ***** ARC ******* » 5X* *TOTA! FLOW* »6X

2 t

* *********** LAST FLOW *************//)

DO 390 N-l* NORIGS

SUM=C

ARC=FTRST(N)

P l)E^TToESTTa ROT

365 IF ( DEST ( ARC ) .NE. PDEST) GO TO 370

S'JN=SUN+FLOW( ARC)

GO TO 380

370 ' WRITE (OUT *375) ORIG(TaRC) *PDESTTSUM*FLOWTTARCT*PO (TARO * 1 PD(TAFC)

375 ' FORMAT (1H » A6,» TO •

* A6 r 3X * 1 10 * 3X • 1 10 * * IN PER IODS p r 1 5 * 1 » THROUGH* »I5)

“SUM=FLOW( ARC)

PDEST=DEST ( ARC

)

380 TARC= ARC

ARC=NEXT( ARC)

IF (ARC .GT. 0) GO TO 365

WRITE ( OUT t 375 ) ORIG ( TARC )* PDEST , SUM * FLOW ( TARC )

r

1 po(tarc) »pd(Taro

390 COrjTIMUE

400 STOP

END
Listing of Subroutine SEARCH of POSTPRO

SUBROUTINE SEARCH ( NODE

»

I'lPEX r LOWER r LENGTH)

IMPLICIT INTEGER IA-Z)

DIMENSION LOWER (1)

INDFXrO

B2--1

T2=LEUGTH

2 IF (T2-B2 .GT, 1) GO TO 3

IUDEV=n2

RETURN

3 C=(T2+T2>/2

KEYr =LOWER ( C

)

IF (KEYC-NOdD 6 » 4 r b

C — FOUND

<1 I ‘ UDF X — C

RETURN

C —- L 0 W F W HALF

5 T2-C

TO ?

C — UPPER HALF

F2^r

'30 TO 2 o
N B S- 1 t 4A K ! ^ . i- 7 6

1

U.S. DEPT. OF COMM.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA

SHEET

1. PUBLICATION OR REPORT NO. Mu.

H' -'L#.

Z. Recipient’ s Accession Mo.

4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 5. Publication Date

EVACNET: Prototype Network Optimization

Models for Building Evacuation $. Performing Organization Code

7. AUTHOR(S)

Richard L. Francis and Patsy B. Saunders

8. Performing Organ. Report No.

9. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

WASHINGTON, DC 20234

M. Project/Task/Work Unit No.

11. Contract./Grant No.

12. SPONSORING ORGANIZATION NAME AND COMPLETE ADDRESS (Street, City, State, ZIP) 13. Type of Report & Period Covered

lOpinsoring Agency Code

15. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

Document describes a computer program; SF-185, FIPS Software Summary, is attached.

16. ABSTRACT (A 200-word or less factual summary of most significant information. If document includes a signi ficant bibliography or

literature survey, mention it here.)

This report presents the results of a pilot project conducted to explore how

the evacuation and "evacuabi 1 i ty" of buildings can be analyzed with the aid of

mathematical network flow optimization models. As a research vehicle, Building

101, an eleven-floor building located on the Gai thersburg , Maryland campus of the

National Bureau of Standards, has been studied; mathematical models pertinent to

evaluating that building under a number of different circumstances have been

developed and solved on the computer.

17, KEY WORDS ( six to twelve entries; alphabetical order; capitalize only the first letter of the first key word unless a proper namt

separated by semicolons)

Building evacuation; high-rise building design; network fl ow

18. AVAILABILITY KT Unlimited

For Official Distribution. Do Not Release to NTIS

Order From Sup. of Doc., U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC

20402, SD Stock No. SN003-003-

Lx Order From National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Springfield VA. 22161

19. SECURITY CLASS

(THIS REPORT)

UNCLASSIFIED

20. SECURITY CLASS

(THIS PAGE)

UNCLASSIFIED

21. NO. OF

PRINTED PAGES

108

22. Price

$ 6.50

USCOMM-DC

r

«

*
}V