Research on escalators used as evacuation stairs under fire scenarios

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 16933
• Main Authors: Zhang, Chunhua, Wu, Xin, Chen, Jinquan, Shen, Hai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 07.10.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/166; 639/705; Elevators & escalators; Evacuation; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Personnel; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Shopping centers; Sprinklers
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-43784-6

Shopping malls are crowded areas which makes the evacuation routes unable to meet personnel evacuation needs. Therefore, this paper proposes the idea of using escalators evacuation to increasing evacuation routes. In addition, the effects of escalator fire shutters on the use of escalator evacuation paths, and the efficiency of mall personnel evacuation under different conditions were simulated. The results show that the different states of fire shutters have different effects on the emergency evacuation. When the fire shutter is not lowered, it will result in 1 person not being evacuated to complete. However, when the fire shutter is lowered to 1.8 m from the ground or sprinklers are set, escalators can be used for evacuation routes are verified. And compared to the normal descent of the fire shutter (only the staircase evacuation, 2 people not evacuate completed), the evacuation of people is completed and the efficiency of evacuation is improved. This result can improve the new evacuation model for emergency evacuation plans of shopping malls with escalators.