VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Fire Dynamics Simulator with Evacuation FDS Evac Technical Reference and User s Guide FDS 5 4 0 Evac 2 2 0 Timo Korhonen and Simo Hostikka VTT October 2 2009 Preface This document describes how to simulate human egress using the evacuation module FDS Evac developed at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland which is fully em bedded in Fire Dynamics Simulator FDS This manual applies to the FDS Evac version 2 2 0 which is embedded in the current FDS version 5 4 0 The most up to date version of this manual can be obtained from the FDS Evac web page at http www vtt fi fdsevac The FDS Evac Technical Reference and User s Guide does not contain information on how to operate FDS nor Smokeview the companion visualisation programme for FDS Their full capabilities are described in the Fire Dynamics Simulator Version 5 User s Guide 2 and the User s Guide for Smokeview Version 5 12 Certain commercial entities equipment or materials may be identifi ed in this document in order to describe an experimental procedure or concept adequately Such identifi cation is not intended to imply recommendation or endorsement by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland nor is it intended to imply that the entities materials or equipment are necessarily the best available for the purpose 4 Disclaimer VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland makes no warranty expressed or implied to users of FDS Evac and accepts no responsibility for its use Users of FDS Evac assume sole responsibility for determining the appropriateness of its use in any particular application for any conclusions drawn from the results of its use and for any actions taken or not taken as a result of analyses performed using these tools Users are warned that FDS Evac is intended for use only by those competent in the fi elds of fi re and evacuation simulation and is intended only to supplement the informed judgement of the qualifi ed user The software package is a computer model that may or may not have predictive capability when applied to a specifi c set of factual circumstances Lackofaccuratepredictionsbythemodel couldlead toerroneous conclusionswith regard to life safety All results should be evaluated by an informed user 5 Contents Preface4 Disclaimer5 1Introduction8 1 1Getting Started 9 1 2Features of Limited Functionality 9 1 3Most recent changes 11 1 4Intended Use of FDS Evac 13 2Model Documentation14 2 1Name and Development Environment 14 2 2Type of the Model 15 2 3Model Developers 15 2 4Relevant Publications 15 2 5Input Data Required to Run the Model 15 2 6Model Results 16 2 7Uses and Limitations 16 3Theoretical Basis for the Evacuation Model18 3 1Introduction 18 3 2Agent Movement Model 19 3 3 Counterfl ow Collision Avoidance Model 23 3 4Fire and Human Interaction 24 3 5Exit Selection 25 3 6Groups 26 3 7Numerical Method 27 4 Testing and Verifi cation29 4 1Introduction 29 4 2Component Testing 30 4 3 Functional Verifi cation 32 4 4 Qualitative Verifi cation 33 4 5Numerical Tests 35 5Model Sensitivity36 6 Contents 5 1Introduction 36 5 2Numerical Mesh Sensitivity 36 5 3Human Parameter Sensitivity 37 5 4Summary 39 6Model Validation41 6 1Introduction 41 6 2Comparisons with Test Data 41 6 3Comparisons with Other Evacuation Models 46 7Running FDS Evac53 7 1Starting a FDS Evac Calculation 53 7 2Updating an Existing FDS Input File to a FDS Evac Input File 54 7 3Getting Help Error Statements Bug Reports 58 8Setting up the Input File for FDS Evac59 8 1The MESH Namelist Group 60 8 2The TIME Namelist Group 62 8 3The SURF Namelist Group 62 8 4The MISC Namelist Group 63 8 5The VENT Namelist Group 63 8 6The OBST Namelist Group 64 8 7The HOLE Namelist Group 64 8 8The PERS Namelist Group 65 8 9The EVAC Namelist Group 70 8 10 The EVHO Namelist Group 71 8 11 The EXIT Namelist Group 71 8 12 The ENTR Namelist Group 73 8 13 The DOOR Namelist Group 74 8 14 The CORR Namelist Group 76 8 15 The EVSS Namelist Group 77 8 16 The STRS Namelist Group 78 9Miscellaneous Information79 9 1Controlling the Start Time of the Egress Movement 79 9 2Additional FDS Evac Input Files 79 9 3FDS Evac Output Files 80 10 Sample Input Files82 11 Conclusion95 Acknowledgements98 References99 7 1 Introduction This document describes how to simulate human egress using the Fire Dynamics Sim ulator FDS 1 2 3 4 and in particular the evacuation module 5 6 7 8 9 This combined fi re and evacuation simulation program is called FDS Evac in this document FDS Evac allows simultaneous simulation of the fi re and evacuation processes It can also be used to simulate only the human egress process without any fi re effects e g a fi re drill FDS Evac treats each evacuee as a separate entity or an agent which has its own personal properties and escape strategies The movement of the agents is simulated using two dimensional planes representing the fl oors of buildings The basic algorithm behind the egress movement solves an equation of motion for each agent in a continuous 2D space and time i