STUDY OF REFUGE FLOOR IMPACT TO FIRE SAFETY EVACUATION FOR HIGH-RISE APARTMENT

• Main Author: Septianto Hutomo, Cahyo
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/57775
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Life safety in apartment fires is one of the most complex aspect in architecture dimension. The risks of the occupants' life safety against the fire hazard in apartment context were influenced by the characteristics of the occupants and the building. The characteristics of the occupants are related to the performance of evacuation to assembly point, while the characteristics of the buildings are related to the reliability of the building in anticipating the fire risk. To shorten the evacuation time for occupants, the defend-in-place inside refuge floor is one of the evacuation options for high-rise apartments. Therefore, refuge floor must fulfill the evacuation safety requirements commensurate with the requirements of exit discharge outside the building. The location of the refuge floor is determined based on the Regulation of the Minister of Public Works and Public Housing No. 14 of 2017 and/or Jakarta Capital Regulation No. 3 of 2012 which regulates intervals of every 16 floors and/or 20 floors for buildings with a minimum height of 24 floors. However, the provisions stipulated in this regulation have not been able to answer the fulfillment of fire evacuation safety in high-rise apartment buildings. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that influence the location or interval of the refuge floor due to fulfillment of fire evacuation safety in high-rise apartment buildings. This research methodology uses a performance-based approach. The methodology of this research includes simulation of evacuation scenarios in an existing 24-floor apartment building with a layout in the form of the letter "H" and a double-loaded corridor system. A hypothetical model of a refuge floor is inserted on a certain floor. This study was conducted by observing two terms of the refuge floor interval, 16 floors or 20 floors. The research variables were divided into: (1) occupant characteristics consisting of age, gender, height, and evacuation behavior, and (2) building characteristics consisting of number and location of exits, location of refuge floors, configuration of evacuation routes). This evacuation simulation was carried out using Pathfinder software. Four scenarios were formulated based on the observed variables, namely: scenario I with individual evacuation behavior and the location of the refuge floor on the 16th floor, scenario II with individual evacuation behavior and the location of the refuge floor on the 20th floor, scenario III with group evacuation behavior and the location of the refuge floor on the second floor. 16, and scenario IV with group evacuation behavior and the location of the refuge floor on the 20th floor. The evacuation objectives consist of: (1) exit discharge and (2) defend-inplace inside refuge floor. The maximum evacuation time determines evacuation safety in each scenario. The safe evacuation parameters refer to the firefight response time of building fire events as regulated in the Regulation of the Minister of Home Affairs No. 114 of 2018, which is 900 seconds. The results of observations of the maximum evacuation time show that the location of the refuge floor on the 20th floor (969.0 seconds and 1014.9 seconds) has not yet satisfied the evacuation safety parameters for the exit discharge objectives. Gender and age factors indicate the variety of ability and movement speed during evacuation. The evacuation route configuration factor also plays as movement speed reduction. The safe evacuation time condition also needs to respond the influencing factors from the fire and smoke hazard inside apartment context, and the influencing factors from the various physical characteristics of occupants. The existence of these factors confirms that the 16-story interval as a refuge floor does not yet guarantee the safe evacuation, even though the maximum travel time generated in the simulation met the safe evacuation parameters. Scenarios with group evacuation behavior represent evacuation situations and conditions in apartments. Group evacuation behavior acts as an influence factor that represents the condition of the family residing in an apartment unit. Scenarios with this evacuation behavior tend to produce a longer maximum evacuation time than scenarios with individual evacuation behavior. Affiliated families cause merging behavior and bottleneck effects on evacuation routes. This effect has implications for occupancy density and evacuation time spans that are larger than individual evacuations.