SIM-Vac

Marker / Edwards

Facility Evacuation Industrial Engineers

"Optimization Via Simulation"

812 South 2nd Street
Canon City, CO 81212
(719) 275-2558
mheinen_1@msn.com

What do we do?

Marker / Edwards uses proven industrial engineering techniques to optimize the evacuation of a facility. Working with the customer, a Marker / Edwards representative will analyze the facility to be evacuated considering the facility’s special circumstances and emergency scenarios.

Each evacuation route within a facility is typically simulated on the computer a number of times using specially designed SIM-VAC software. The need to conduct multiple "live" evacuation practices to fine tune the evacuation is reduced. Time, money, and disruption are minimized in the pursuit of a workable evacuation plan a priori.

The Marker / Edwards representative works interactively with the customer modifying evacuation route scenarios and parameters to provide critical, decision making information. Results from the simulation, such as evacuation time, the effects of bottlenecks (doors, turns, stairs), room delay times, etc., are used to run subsequent simulations of the evacuation. A final written report and recommendations (with supporting documentation) is provided to customer. Marker / Edwards maintains full confidentiality of a customer's evacuation plans and simulation results. Should the customer desire, Marker / Edwards can retain simulation results for future modification.

Why Simulation?

Computer simulation of an evacuation route permits the evacuation to be accurately analyzed without conducting an actual evacuation.
The evacuation is conducted in virtual space and time.

Parameters affecting the evacuation are know (or can be reasonably estimated). Some parameters are changed in subsequent simulations of the evacuation   plan with the goal of meeting the customer's needs.   The optimum set of parameters is found which most closely meets the customer’s evacuation criteria. This criteria, for example, might be to minimize evacuation time or crowding.

For each simulation, SIM-VAC   provides the people density at any instance and any location along the evacuation route. Bottlenecks along the route are easily identified and the evacuation time for the route is determined.    The parameters associated with each evacuation route such as physical dimensions of the passageways, people flow out of rooms, evacuation speed, obstacles on the route, sub routes entering onto the main evacuation route, etc. are provided by the customer or determined by the Marker / Edwards   representative. This data is then input to SIM-VAC for analysis.

Simulation provides a method of testing a proposed evacuation plan to determine its feasibility.

Additionally, simulation is an accurate and cost effective method to optimize an evacuation plan and in lieu of multiple "live" evacuation practices.

Facility Evacuation Simulation Engine

SIM-VAC is a custom designed computer program by Marker / Edwards which discreetly and deterministically* simulates the personnel evacuation of a facility. The program conducts a foot by foot, second by second simulation over each evacuation route.

	Multiple main evacuation routes
	Multiple sub evacuation routes
	Hallway widths
	Hallway flow velocities
	Hallway “packed” densities
	Room capacities and exit rates
	Room exit delays
	Obstruction flow rates
	Simulation results (person density as a function of time and distance) can be:

	Viewed on a surface or contour plot (time in seconds vs. distance)
	Scaled to an array of integer sizes (1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc.)
	Saved to file (for input to data analysis software: MatLab®, MathCad®, Axum®, etc.)
	Printed