Using Agent-based Simulation Model for Studying Fire Escape Process in Metro Stations

The Hong Kong Metro System has been operating for more than 30 years. With the increase in population, some of the stations are crowded in most time of a day. To facilitate the design and the alteration works for a station, the crowding and passenger movement pattern, especially the escape pattern in case of fire, should be studied. This article illustrated an agent-based people movement model, and a case targeting at the people movement pattern and egress process in a metro station has been studied. The simulation results demonstrate that the model is useful for assisting building designers to evaluate different design alternatives and to support fire safety performance studies.