Emergency Exits
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Context
Section titled “Context”While working at Molex as a process simulation engineer, I led the simulation of emergency exits in a plant to optimize facility safety.
Some project details have been removed due to confidentiality.
Project Overview
Section titled “Project Overview”The goal of this simulation project was to optimize emergency exit planning for a new manufacturing facility. High-occupancy buildings must support fast and safe evacuation during emergencies. Better emergency exit planning reduces the risk of workforce fatalities during natural events, accidents, or human-caused incidents.
The project objectives were to:
- Plan optimal emergency exit routes
- Evaluate staircase widths in critical areas
- Confirm building clear times were within required timelines
- Determine worst-case evacuation scenarios
The simulation model was implemented as an agent-based system. The model considered:
- Physical distances between people and body sizes
- Walls, doorframes, and other obstacles
- Nonlinear individual routes, speeds, and behaviors
- Social behavior between agents
An example of the system can be seen below:
Results
Section titled “Results”- Confirmed and defined the optimal number of exits
- Recommended staircase sizing for each area
- Defined specific rules and floor markings for critical areas
- Confirmed building clear times were within required timelines