Calculation of Mixed Evacuation of Stair and Elevator Using EVACNET4

Elevator mode in EVACNET4 is used for mixed evacuation of stair and elevator in a high-rise building. It is shown that EVACNET4 always produces an optimal evacuation of the building. Each evacuation is optimal in the sense that it minimizes the total evacuation time and makes good balance of the usages between stairwells and elevators. Calculations in several scenarios are carried out to study the influences of different amounts of people on the evacuation time and usage percentages between these two escape methods. It is shown that elevator is a better choice due to its faster movement, while there are only a few people to be evacuated. When evacuees increase, the more evacuees are, the bigger costs of elevator usages are. Mixed evacuation is competitive. Double deployment is also considered to show potential abilities of elevators in safety evacuations.