Fire Emergency Evacuation from a School Building Using an Evolutionary Virtual Reality Platform

In the last few years, modern technologies such as numerical simulations, virtual and augmented reality, and agent-based models represented effective tools to study phenomena, which may not be experimentally reproduced due to costs, inherent hazards, or other constraints (e.g., fire or earthquake em...

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Main Authors: Paola Lorusso, Melissa De Iuliis, Sebastiano Marasco, Marco Domaneschi, Gian Paolo Cimellaro, Valentina Villa
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-02-01
Series:Buildings
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/12/2/223
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author Paola Lorusso
Melissa De Iuliis
Sebastiano Marasco
Marco Domaneschi
Gian Paolo Cimellaro
Valentina Villa
author_facet Paola Lorusso
Melissa De Iuliis
Sebastiano Marasco
Marco Domaneschi
Gian Paolo Cimellaro
Valentina Villa
author_sort Paola Lorusso
collection DOAJ
description In the last few years, modern technologies such as numerical simulations, virtual and augmented reality, and agent-based models represented effective tools to study phenomena, which may not be experimentally reproduced due to costs, inherent hazards, or other constraints (e.g., fire or earthquake emergencies and evacuation from buildings). This paper shows how to integrate a virtual reality platform with numerical simulation tools to reproduce an evolutionary fire emergency scenario. It is computed in real time based on the building information model and a fluid dynamic software. A specific software was also used to simulate in real time the crowd dynamic in the virtual environment during the emergency evacuation process. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodology, the emergency fire evacuation process for an existing school building is presented. The results show that the proposed virtual reality-based system can be employed for reproducing fire emergency scenarios. It can be used to help decision-makers to determine emergency plans and to help firefighters as a training tool to simulate emergency evacuation actions.
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spelling doaj.art-07ebfedaca3148bba4377dc064a5b2672023-11-23T19:06:51ZengMDPI AGBuildings2075-53092022-02-0112222310.3390/buildings12020223Fire Emergency Evacuation from a School Building Using an Evolutionary Virtual Reality PlatformPaola Lorusso0Melissa De Iuliis1Sebastiano Marasco2Marco Domaneschi3Gian Paolo Cimellaro4Valentina Villa5Department of Structural, Geotechnical and Building Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, ItalyDepartment of Structural, Geotechnical and Building Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, ItalyDepartment of Structural, Geotechnical and Building Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, ItalyDepartment of Structural, Geotechnical and Building Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, ItalyDepartment of Structural, Geotechnical and Building Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, ItalyDepartment of Structural, Geotechnical and Building Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Turin, ItalyIn the last few years, modern technologies such as numerical simulations, virtual and augmented reality, and agent-based models represented effective tools to study phenomena, which may not be experimentally reproduced due to costs, inherent hazards, or other constraints (e.g., fire or earthquake emergencies and evacuation from buildings). This paper shows how to integrate a virtual reality platform with numerical simulation tools to reproduce an evolutionary fire emergency scenario. It is computed in real time based on the building information model and a fluid dynamic software. A specific software was also used to simulate in real time the crowd dynamic in the virtual environment during the emergency evacuation process. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodology, the emergency fire evacuation process for an existing school building is presented. The results show that the proposed virtual reality-based system can be employed for reproducing fire emergency scenarios. It can be used to help decision-makers to determine emergency plans and to help firefighters as a training tool to simulate emergency evacuation actions.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/12/2/223virtual realityemergencyfiresmokeevacuationsimulations
spellingShingle Paola Lorusso
Melissa De Iuliis
Sebastiano Marasco
Marco Domaneschi
Gian Paolo Cimellaro
Valentina Villa
Fire Emergency Evacuation from a School Building Using an Evolutionary Virtual Reality Platform
Buildings
virtual reality
emergency
fire
smoke
evacuation
simulations
title Fire Emergency Evacuation from a School Building Using an Evolutionary Virtual Reality Platform
title_full Fire Emergency Evacuation from a School Building Using an Evolutionary Virtual Reality Platform
title_fullStr Fire Emergency Evacuation from a School Building Using an Evolutionary Virtual Reality Platform
title_full_unstemmed Fire Emergency Evacuation from a School Building Using an Evolutionary Virtual Reality Platform
title_short Fire Emergency Evacuation from a School Building Using an Evolutionary Virtual Reality Platform
title_sort fire emergency evacuation from a school building using an evolutionary virtual reality platform
topic virtual reality
emergency
fire
smoke
evacuation
simulations
url https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/12/2/223
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