A Numerical Simulation of Smoke Spread and Fire Evacuation in a Large MRT Multilevel-Platform Station

Abstract

This paper presents a coupled fire and evacuation simulation in a large MRT multilevelplatform
station via a well-known CFD fire model, FDS+Evac. The objectives of this study
were to demonstrate compliance of the station evacuation times with the evacuation times
required by NFPA 130 and to perform a safety analysis of passengers in the station based
on the simulation results. Four simulations based on worst case scenario concept were
performed. In all cases, the total station passenger load based on the ridership forecast
data was 2,594 persons. The calculations were performed for both no wind and wind blow
from East at a speed of 9.25 m/s boundary conditions. The simulation results showed that
the platform evacuation times for all cases were less than 4 minutes. The station evacuation
times for all passengers to reach the point of safety, which was defined as the concourse
level as permitted by NFPA 130 for an above ground open station, were approximately within
5 minutes. Both platform evacuation times and station evacuation times were complied
with the evacuation times required by the NFPA 130. The tenable environments of the
station were maintained for all the evacuation processes and therefore the passengers for
all cases were considered to be safe from fire hazard. The study suggested that coupled of
fire and evacuation simulations provided more useful information inside the station during
fire and evacuation processes which was not feasible to obtain via a full scale test. These
simulation results can be used by a fire safety engineer to improve an egress efficiency of
a large MRT multilevel-platform station.