Simulation method for fire evacuation safety of teaching buildings in colleges and universities

• Combined PyroSim and Pathfinder to simulate fire evacuation in university teaching buildings. • Comprehensive analysis of smoke flow, fire field temperature, and visibility on evacuation efficiency. • Revealed key factors affecting evacuation speed and safety in large-scale teaching buildings. • Found that congestion during evacuation increased significantly with the number of occupants. • Proposed method provides theoretical support and practical guidance for fire risk management in universities. To reveal the fire evacuation characteristics and potential safety hazards of teaching buildings in colleges and universities effectively, PyroSim was combined with Pathfinder simulation software to propose a safety analysis method for crowd evacuation, which comprehensively compared smoke flow, fire field temperature, and visibility. Based on the fire scene and crowd evacuation model of a large-scale teaching building in a university, the evacuation efficiency and security situation under six crowd distributions were explored, and the key factors affecting the evacuation efficiency and evacuation safety were determined. Then, the influencing mechanism of the fire field environment on the evacuation effect was revealed. Afterward, the reliability of the safety analysis method for crowd evacuation based on three parameters—smoke flow, fire field temperature, and visibility—was verified. Results manifested that the evacuation conditions were influenced substantially by the reduction of smoke, high-temperature zone, and visibility, and the teaching building lost its safety evacuation condition just 105 s after the fire broke out. As the number of people in the teaching building grew, congestion was gradually aggravated during evacuation. Especially when the number of people on each floor reached 150 and 180, the needed evacuation time exceeded the usable safety evacuation time under the fire scene, considerably intensifying the evacuation risk. The study conclusions can be referenced for the fire risk management and safety layout of teaching buildings in colleges and universities.