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INTRODUCTION

In any fire-safety engineering design, protection of the building occupants is of paramount importance. A key factor will be the initial distributions of people, which in turn will depend on the use of the building. The total number of people depends on the building's size, but their distribution within the building depends on the use of the different rooms. The time of day or night may also have a significant impact on the population. It is important to consider not just numbers of people, but also other characteristics that will influence how they behave, and hence the outcome of any fire scenario. People's behaviours may depend on many factors, including their defined role within the building population, the influence of training, familiarity with the building, age, gender and other factors such as whether they have a disability, which may restrict the possible activities that may be attempted.

Development of numerical models to predict evacuation started in the 1980s, and was well established by the 1990s. Early models concentrated on the physical aspects such as movement speeds and flow rates through various constrictions. As research has improved our understanding, later models have incorporated various aspects of human behaviour that may be as significant, if not more so, than the movement process per se.