Fire Dynamics Simulation and Evacuation for a Large Shopping Center (Mall): Part I, Fire Simulation Scenarios

Abstract

Malls like any retailing centers face exposure for a host of risks including fire, which is no stranger to shopping malls. Fires in closed malls, patronized by lots of people, can cause many fatalities among panicked people running and pushing to get out of these burning places and great damage to the property itself. This computational study covers the possibilities of smoke propagation and evacuation due to hazardous fires in a large shopping center (mall) in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The mall occupies 50,753 m 2 and has two main floors. It contains 144 stores in the ground floor and 56 stores in the upper floor. It has five gates, one elevator, four escalators and five emergency exit stairs. The study is divided into two parts. Part I concerns four scenarios of fire simulation. Part II considers corresponding four scenarios of evacuation. The present results explain how fast the smoke may spread in such buildings and its mechanism to move from one floor to another. The smoke propagation/movement is highly affected by the architecture of the building and the type of activities inside it.