Effects of Exit Doors and Number of Passengers on Airport Evacuation Effeciency Using Agent Based Simulation

<p>Many factors determine the efficiency of evacuation at an airport during emergencies. These factors are very complicated and many times, unpredictable. The Federal Aviation Administration provides numerous advisory circulars and regulations for managing airport evacuation. However, a thorough literature review suggests that research on airport evacuation is still very limited. A study was designed to simulate an airport evacuation to address this problem. This study selected a local certificated airport in the United States for this purpose. We developed and validated a situation model using AnyLogic to investigate evacuation time at this airport. Using different variables, such as the number of passengers and the number of exits, we calculated the total evacuation time. As a result, this study provided statistical data to show how the reduced number of exits and the increased amount of passenger traffic increased the total duration of the evacuation.</p>