With a focus on abandonment of passenger vessels, the research discussed in this paper represents a significant step forward in quantifying human performance during ship evacuation. Results from the research have quantified that males are generally faster than females and that abandonment time increases with age for untrained persons. The research indicates that with training, subjects are able to egress through vertical chute systems roughly twice as fast as subjects without training in the same chute. While the research with non-ambulatory subjects indicates some difficulty in abandonment for slides and chutes, further effort is required to more fully investigate the evacuation of non-ambulatory personnel. In addition, further planned research will aid in properly defining potential scenarios and to quantify human abandonment performance for a wider spectrum of LSAs and environmental conditions. Such efforts will permit accurate simulation of ship evacuation and suggest areas for improvement of ship design and crewing requirements, including training to ensure safe, effective and efficient response to emergencies at sea and ultimately save lives.
展开▼
