Modeling and analyzing 3D complex building interiors for effective evacuation simulations

Efficient simulation approaches help managers develop effective evacuation plans in the event of an emergency. To determine the optimal routes for rescue and evacuation in a complex building, we introduce a data model to express the topological and geometrical relationships of the building's inner structures. Compared with the other related models, our approach represents the topological relations and geometric properties of the building features more efficiently. Based on the resulting model, we present a hierarchical route-planning algorithm to find the optimal evacuation paths for quickly guiding evacuees to the exits. At the macro-level, the route-planning algorithm dynamically schedules evacuation routes and evacuation sequences and updates real-time evacuation routes. At the micro-level, individuals' behaviors are simulated during the evacuation process using the social force model, which is based on parallel computation. The experiments show that our method can support large crowd evacuation simulation, and has evacuation efficiency. It simulates evacuee movement and evacuation in complex buildings as well.

► Simulation can help to develop effective evacuation plans in the case of emergency.
► A data model is studied to represent the connectivity and geometry of 3D building interiors.
► We present an evacuation route planning approach in 3D buildings.
► The route planning and social force model are combined to simulate crowd evacuation.