Queuing Model for Assessing the Efficiency of Building Corridors
Publication: Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 16, Issue 1
Abstract
Models of occupant flow in buildings represent powerful tools for improving safety and efficiency of occupant movements in large public buildings. The ability to predict the movement of people is valuable from the view point of safety considerations as well as several nonemergency aspects such as the level of service, efficiency and comfort, as well as space cognition and interaction. Capturing the manner of occupant movement can be used for the design of pathways and corridors in large public buildings such as train stations, airports, academic buildings, and shopping centers. Surprisingly, to date there has been very limited research on correlating the design of the building corridors to the occupant flow. Short of code requirements for emergency egress, there are very few guidelines on sizing and designing corridors. This paper presents the findings of a study aimed at developing a method to evaluate the flow of occupants in corridors, so that designers can understand how well a particular corridor accommodates the occupants’ movements and activities. In this paper, a queuing model is developed for determining the occupant flow density in corridors. The queuing model can be used to determine the occupant flow density in a wide array of corridor layouts and designs and correlate it to the level of service. In addition, actual data were collected and analyzed to validate the results from the queuing model. It is shown that the model is robust and accurate enough to model a wide array of design variables. The analysis can be very useful in designing efficient corridors in buildings of various scales ranging from small shopping centers to large airports, resulting in potential construction cost savings. A computerized model is developed and presented along with an example.
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Acknowledgments
The writer gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided by the National Science Foundation for this research project under the NSF HBCU-UP ACTION Award Grant No. NSF0411387. The writer wishes to appreciate and acknowledge the support rendered toward the success of the project by the Dr. Robert Johnson, Dr. Kelly Mack, and Dr. Dan Seaton.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 16 • Issue 1 • March 2010
Pages: 3 - 10
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Dec 18, 2006
Accepted: Jan 24, 2008
Published online: Feb 12, 2010
Published in print: Mar 2010
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