Background
The din-Dietmar Nocker Sicherheitstechnik GmbH and Co. KG has more than 30-year experience in emergency and security lighting. When they moved into a new and innovative building in Aspern in Vienna, it was clear to the managing director, Christoph Nocker, that security was paramount for the company and its employees. Needless to say, the building is equipped with emergency signage and lighting. The escape signs can be controlled as required, and the staff can be quickly redirected if the escape routes are blocked.
Goal of the simulation
accu:rate has analyzed different scenarios of the evacuation with partial obstruction of the escape routes to compare them to escape routes with guided evacuation paths.
Scope of consideration
- First scenario: the lighting showed the standard escape route. However, this one was blocked and the agents had to look for a new way after they realized they could not go any further.
- Second scenario: the lighting was adapted to the situation and the employees knew from the time the alarm has started that they should take a certain way. The signs indicated exactly which way was free and should be chosen by the employees.
Results
- Clear difference between both scenarios in the evacuation time
- The agents would have needed twice as long if they had to reorient by themselves and could not simply follow the emergency lights
The simulation showed, that the evacuation was twice as long with a static emergency lighting.
Course of evacuation
Image source: picture by Braden Hopkins via Unsplash.