Quantitative Comparison of International Design Standards of Escape Routes in Assembly Buildings

Abstract

The design standards for escape routes in assembly buildings are discussed by comparing the building codes and regulations of eight European countries, China, and USA. To quantify the results for the simple scenario of the evacuation of an assembly room, the travel times are calculated by flow capacity equations. For each country the results vary with the area of the assembly room. Among different countries there is a significant scatter of the results which varies by a factor of three. As the travel times are influenced by the design occupant densities which range from 0.5 to 4 p/m2 for places of entertainment, a second comparison is made with a normalized density of 4 p/m2. Here the results also scatter by a factor of three. The implications on occupant safety are discussed with regard to potential fire scenarios.