A COMPUTER-BASED SIMULATION-MODEL FOR THE PREDICTION OF EVACUATION FROM MASS-TRANSPORT VEHICLES

EXODUS is a prototype egress model designed to simulate the evacuation of large numbers of individuals from an enclosure. The model tracks the trajectory of individuals as they make their way out of the enclosure, or are overcome by fire hazards such as heat and toxic gases. The software is expert system based, the progressive motion and behaviour of each individual being determined by a set of heuristics or rules. EXODUS is intended, primarily, for use in mass-transport vehicles such as aircraft, but it also has application to cinema, theatres and lecture halls. EXODUS comprises five core interacting components-the movement, behaviour, passenger, hazard and toxicity submodels. These sub-components are described and model results are compared with experimental data generated from a series of competitive aircraft evacuation experiments. The model is successful in predicting the experimental trends. Finally, the capabilities of the model are demonstrated through a series of hypothetical evacuation scenarios involving a wide-body aircraft.