Computer Simulation of Crowd Movement in a Big Airport Terminal for Safety Assessment

摘要

The key function of an airport terminal is for mass transport and a large number of passengers and visitors areexpected to stay inside. Field studies on a big international airport in Hong Kong illustrated that the passengerloading in the terminal is very heavy in the departure hall and the arrival hall. Evacuation under emergency is aconcern, as the number of fires over the world appears to be increasing. Evacuation patterns in the crowdedareas should be studied carefully to ensure safety.In this paper, crowd movement in the departure hall and arrival hall of the local airport terminals will be studied.Emergency conditions in the departure and arrival levels with different occupancies are considered. Differentevacuation designs proposed at each level will be assessed by studying the evacuation patterns. Occupantloading, exit designs and fire location will be varied to understand the movement of passengers.The total evacuation time for the occupants to leave the areas will be simulated by the computer softwarebuildingEXODUS. The number of occupants who can evacuate within the targeted time can be assessed. Betterevacuation designs are then recommended from the simulated results.