The Influence of Calibrated Movement Data on Movement Egress Times in Computational Simulation Modeling

This presentation quantifies the movement time error introduced by the use of default settings for occupant physical parameters in the Pathfinder egress modeling software. By using calibrated physical occupant inputs for Speed, Diameter, Reduction Factor, and Personal Distance taken from a large airport located within the United States, a comparative analysis determined the most influential physical occupant variable on calculated movement times. In conjunction, movement times were compared between simulations that utilized default values and simulations that utilized calibrated occupant data. The analysis found that RSET movement times calculated using calibrated occupant data were up to 100% longer than RSET movement times calculated using default settings. This difference in RSET movement times is an item of significant safety importance.

Additionally, calibrated physical occupant parameters for identified user groups were compared between two large geographically disparate airports located within the United States. The analysis found that even similar user groups from different geographic locations could produce movement times that vary up to 18%. Therefore, it was concluded that an occupant population is unique to each location and an engineer not using calibrated occupant data for computational egress modeling can obtain results that are fundamentally unreliable and potentially reduce safety.