Research on the sensitivity of key factors influencing evacuation in building stairwell based on simulation

With more people clustering in buildings, evacuation in high-rise buildings has become a challenge in urban safety. Despite the identification of key influencing factors in existing studies, quantitative analyses of their impacts remain inadequate, and there is a lack of a systematic evaluation framework. To address this gap, the present study employs a multi-factor-aware pedestrian evacuation agent model, coupled with parameter sensitivity analysis, to investigate the effects of evacuation parameters on evacuation time. The research proceeds as follows: first, a Perception-Decision-Operation (PDO) framework for occupant movement is proposed and integrated into the pedestrian evacuation model; second, the proposed model is validated by using evacuation experimental data collected from different floors; third, the sensitivity of evacuation time to four critical parameters — pedestrian number, expected speed, step depth, and stair width — is analyzed, and the degree of influence of each parameter is quantified. The results demonstrate that expected speed exerts the most significant impact on pedestrian evacuation time, followed by step depth, while stair width has the least influence. The sensitivity quantification method adopted herein overcomes the limitations of traditional empirical approaches. These findings not only provide a data-driven basis for optimizing key building evacuation parameters but also facilitate a paradigm shift in emergency evacuation design from qualitative assessment to quantitative evaluation. Ultimately, this study offers valuable insights for emergency management in complex built environments.