Evaluation of Underground Spaces Evacuation Effectiveness

As the need for the construction of underground spaces is growing, the need to integrate human behavior analysis into their design studies is obvious. In order to make this happen, the current belief that subterranean structures are unsafe needs to be altered. Increasing the safety of these spaces is the key factor that will achieve the most comfortable and effective utilization by the public. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate underground spaces as regards to their evacuation effectiveness and to compare them with similar above-ground buildings. To accomplish this, on one hand the factors that affect the evacuation effectiveness have been defined and on the other hand a tailor cut evaluation system has been developed. Among the factors influencing the evacuation effectiveness, the location of the exit doors/routes is of primary importance. Therefore, the evacuation evaluation methodology is based on the location of the exit doors design. The developed software, apart from checking the compliance of a given underground space with the evacuation regulations regarding the exit door location, assesses and evaluates all possible combinations of exit doors location based on the evaluation system developed. The grading for each combination results from the value of the variables that affect the evacuation procedures (i.e. exit door distance), according to the evaluation function developed. The evaluation system developed can give the evacuation safety profile of any space (under and above ground), helping a lot not only to check the safety of a given space, but also to design safer structures as well. The results of the comparative study of various areas prove that underground structures are quite safe in reference to evacuation procedures even in case where only two exits are available.