A Comparative Analysis on the Evacuation Time of Atrium-style Metro Station

This article is to study the similarities and differences in terms of computational methodologies in different nations, as well as to analyze the accuracy and reliability of them, and consequently to raise proposals to improve this methodology in China. The author chose an atrium-style metro station as a study case. Computations and comparisons were carried out on the evacuation time, according to the terms in Chinese “CFDOM” (GB50157-2013), the U.S. “NPFA130” (2014) and Japanese “JIS Railway Standards”. The results indicate that, the computational methodology in China is readily to be comprehended, while it ignores some important features. A certain extent of irrationality can be found in this methodology. While the American and Japanese codes specify the evacuation path in details, which leads to a more reasonable evacuation time. Therefore, in practical use, a synthetic methodology that considers multinational codes is commonly suggested, for the most precise evacuation time.