Framework for evaluating administrative buildings evacuation using agent-based simulation and multi-criteria decision making / Basma Sayed Mostafa Mohamed ; Supervised Mohamed Mahdy Marzouk

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Engineering - Department of Civil Engineering

Performance-based design has become inherently important in construction. It is absolutely necessary to assess the level of safety provided by the building structure to its occupants in normal conditions and more importantly in fire incidents, since code compliant structures do not always offer the needed safety for occupants. This can be achieved by combining static data from building codes and regulations with the dynamic data resulting from the interaction between occupants and between occupants and their surrounding environment. This research proposes a framework that uses building information modelling (BIM) and agent-based simulation (ABS) to assess the evacuation performance of public administrative buildings. BIM is used to model the geometry of buildings and to visualize the evacuation process. It acts as a platform for ABS to identify potential bottlenecks and points of hazard, based on the data collected regarding agents behaviour in emergency situations. The developed framework is capable of ranking different evacuation plans and/or design alternatives using multi-criteria decision making, depending on several criteria, unlike other systems that evaluate buildings safety using the egress time as the sole criterion. This can be of great use to designers as well as insurance companies, especially in the case of the presence of limited funding

Issued also as CD