Aspects regarding numerical models for safe evacuation of people, in the current pandemic context

Abstract

In everyday life, several situations can be mentioned in which a building or a complex of buildings may require emergency evacuation: fires, chemical leaks, release of toxic or explosive gases, explosions, violent behavior, or threats with weapons/bombs. To calculate the time needed for building evacuation, numerical models are used to simulate this process of movement of groups of people, in a closed physical space. Algorithms for access path and exit selection use both properties of the crowds model and the individual interaction between event and people. The pandemic context has raised several questions about the safe use of buildings, given the presence of the risk of disease transmission. The policies adopted in the last year regarding the use of buildings, establishing access flows, and social distance, vary within great limits, being specific to each state and based on the analysis of the virus transmission rate rather than on risk assessments at the building level. The paper aims to present the main challenges to which the models of emergency evacuation, must respond, especially those considering social distancing and interaction between individuals, within a given distance, all to minimize the risk of disease transmission during the evacuation process of the building.