Spatial analysis of RMG factory buildings in relation to emergency escape routes

Abstract

This research work is focused on Spatial Analysis of RMG factory buildings in relation to Escape Route used during an emergency evacuation. In recent years RMG factories have encountered frequent fire hazards, causing death to hundreds of workers. During fire occurrences, it is very important to evacuate the occupants safely & orderly in a shortest possible time. Nowadays the RMG factory authorities are trying to follow ‘Emergency Evacuation Plan’ during fire drill to ensure the safety of the workers. As a part of ‘Emergency Evacuation Plan’ floor plans are posted on the wall at the individual floor, where ‘Escape Routes’ are marked with arrows showing the evacuation pathway towards exit doors. It is important that such escape routes should have a significant relationship with the spatial configuration of the production area for efficient evacuation. Spatial configuration is defined by the arrangement of fixed elements like exit Stair, partition walls, columns, etc and moveable elements like a machine, workstations, furniture, etc. In RMG buildings the arrangements of spatial elements in the production floor generate a circulation pathway that eventually acts as ‘Escape Routes’ for evacuation. The character of spatial configuration not only determines and navigates the movement of people through space but also the understanding of it is important for predicting congestion, planning of evacuation, planning of pedestrian traffic and crowd control. Therefore an understanding of spatial layout is required to design effective ‘Escape Routes’ for better evacuation. The objectives of this research are to analyze the ‘Spatial layout’ of RMG Factories particularly the production area to determine the character & impact of spatial configuration on the movement pattern through escape route during an evacuation. Six RMG factories are selected as case study to conduct field survey, simulation study, Fire-drill observation and spatial analysis to achieve these objectives. The character of spatial configuration is analyzed in a simulated environment through space syntax based visual graph analysis method. To understand the impact of configuration on movement pattern, simulated and observed movement flows are analyzed in relation to spatial morphology. Then a comparative analysis of six cases is discussed to understand their spatial layout in relation to escape route. This research has identified some significant spatial characters that have impacts on movement pattern during an evacuation. Finally, based on observation and analysis, the research findings are discussed which may help to evaluate and design effective escape route layout in RMG factory.