Civil Engineering and Architecture Vol. 10(6), pp. 2524 - 2540
DOI: 10.13189/cea.2022.100622
Reprint (PDF) (2287Kb)

Investigating the Impact of Staircases Rotation on the Evacuation Efficiency

Usama Konbr ^*, Ehab Maher
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

ABSTRACT

Most people use stairs during emergencies and evacuations. Therefore, this study addressed the impact of staircase rotation to minimize physical effort and evacuation time, hypothesizing that staircase rotation affects the evacuation speed and the safety of the occupants. This study consisted of two stages. In the first stage, a questionnaire was delivered to architects, with two key questions about the preferred direction in daily use and the other regarding evacuation cases. The second stage involved field experiments on two different staircases in the rotational direction, which were applied to 53 participants to measure the efficiency of the staircases in four cases (slow descent, slow ascent, fast descent and fast ascent). The counter-clockwise staircase during the field experiments showed better results and was more efficient. The heart pulse rate (pulse/min) in the clockwise case showed a clear increase compared to the counter-clockwise case by 12.89% for slow descending, 6.91% for fast descending, 21.51% for slow ascending, and 18.27% for fast ascending. Therefore, the theoretical and practical results of the study validated the hypothesis on the impact of the staircase rotation on user comfort and evacuation speed. Moreover, it was concluded that counter-clockwise staircases provided faster evacuation with less physical effort.

KEYWORDS
Architecture, Staircases, Evacuation, Staircase Rotation, High-rise Buildings, Building Codes, Schematic Design Phase, Architects

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Usama Konbr , Ehab Maher , "Investigating the Impact of Staircases Rotation on the Evacuation Efficiency," Civil Engineering and Architecture, Vol. 10, No. 6, pp. 2524 - 2540, 2022. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2022.100622.

(b). APA Format:
Usama Konbr , Ehab Maher (2022). Investigating the Impact of Staircases Rotation on the Evacuation Efficiency. Civil Engineering and Architecture, 10(6), 2524 - 2540. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2022.100622.