Numerical Analysis of the Effect of Ship Exits on Evacuation Efficiency

In order to consider the impact of fires at different locations in ship on the human evacuation process in an emergency situation, the living deck of a training ship was used as the experimental framework, and Pathfinder was used to simulating the evacuation process. In the simulation scenarios, the unavailability of a single exit due to an accident was taken into account, and three indicators were adopted to analyze the impact of each exit on the efficiency of evacuation. The results showed that the occurrence of fire at the widest exit (exit 3) has the greatest impact on performance, and the congestion is the key restricting factor of evacuation onboard. However, the evacuation time decreased on the contrary when exit 3 undertaking heavy tasks was closed. Accordingly, when another exit near exit 3 was closed, exit 3 should take more tasks and the evacuation time increased sharply. Based on the simulation results, the types of stairs can be optimized from a scientific perspective to alleviate congestion, and the evacuation efficiency and process can be greatly improved.