Evacuation Dynamics of Children – Walking Speeds, Flows Through Doors in Daycare Centers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to deliver new data and to bring attention to the subject of evacuation of children. Evacuation characteristics such as flow, densities and walking speeds are in focus. Current literature on evacuation is based mostly on studies on adults. Ten Danish daycare centers participated in full scale evacuation experiments where two age groups 0-2 years and 3-6 years were analyzed separately. The overall findings were as follows. Flow through doors, walking speeds and densities were age-dependent and differed strongly from the data in existing literature. The results showed higher walking speeds in spiral stairs when the children were familiar with the evacuation path. Higher person densities and faster flow through doors were obtained among the children than found in the current literature on adults. Children in the younger age group were generally slower than the older children. The children walked slower in horizontal plane than adults, however they were keen to run during the evacuations, in the latter case their travel speed increased and exceeded the adults’. Since the evacuation characteristics of children differ in many ways from those of adults, nowadays models badly comprehend the evacuation behavior children.