Investigation on evacuation scenarios according to occupant profile in mosques through different fire regulations

Abstract

Structural fires cause excessive life and property loss. The reduction of life and property loss in fire, risk management is achieved by evacuation scenarios and occupant profile in proper and real manner. Assembly buildings should be con- sidered and evaluated as areas of intensive use, especially for evacuation scenar- ios and occupant profile. Within the scope of the study, the occupant profile for mosques as an assembly building with independent exits created with single space was analysed, fire safety risks were identified and evacuation scenarios were deter- mined. The occupant profile and evacuation scenarios are crossed and evacuation risk combinations are created for mosques. Within the context of evacuation risk combinations, the building occupant load was calculated according to the occu- pant load coefficients of the fire regulations of Turkey, USA, UK, New Zealand, Singapore and Australia via the Canik Central Mosque sample. Building occupant loads were calculated according to regulations and evacuation times were calcu- lated through Pathfinder simulation program. It was found that there were large differences between the resulting evacuation times. The study concluded that differences in occupant load coefficients found in fire regulation greatly affected evacuation times. In mosques whose floors have independent exits, especially the upper floor (mahfil) is the determinant of evacuation times. The need to design alternative exits where two exits are not sufficient for the mahfil has been deter- mined. As the transition to performance-based fire regulation systems has accel- erated, it has been determined that occupant load coefficients are an important parameter in calculating evacuation times for mosques