AUTCON-01854; No of Pages 10

Automation in Construction xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Automation in Construction
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon

Applying building information modeling to support fire

safety management
Shih-Hsu Wang a,⁎, Wei-Chih Wang b,1, Kun-Chi Wang b, Shih-Yu Shih b
a
Department of Civil Engineering, R.O.C Military Academy, No.1, Wei-Wu Road, Fengshan, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
b
Department of Civil Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, 1001, University Road, Hsin-Chu Taiwan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Building information modeling (BIM) is useful in three-dimensional (3D) visualization and data/information
Received 29 October 2014 storage for planning and maintaining building projects. Recently, researchers globally have been exploring the
Accepted 3 February 2015 applications of BIM. In this work, a BIM-based model is designed to support fire safety management of buildings.
Available online xxxx
The model comprises four modules — evacuation assessment, escape route planning, safety education, and
equipment maintenance. The evacuation assessment module integrates BIM with a Fire Dynamics Simulator to
Keywords:
Building information modeling
calculate the required safety egress time and the available safety egress time to evaluate the ability to evacuate
Evacuation assessment in case of fire. The escape route planning module utilizes BIM to determine whether the distance of an escape
Escape route planning route is acceptable. The safety education module presents hazardous areas, videos of escape routes and direction-
Fire safety education al maps, all in three dimensions, to educate the occupants of the building about fire safety. The equipment main-
Fire safety equipment maintenance tenance module is implemented in a web-based prototype to support maintenance tasks in a remote
Web-based safety management management manner. The results of applying BIM have demonstrated that BIM can effectively provide 3D geo-
metric data to support the assessment and planning of fire safety (using the first three modules), and it can
store information in support of safety management and property management in a web-based environment
(using the equipment maintenance module).
© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Effective fire safety management is a critical task in planning, design-

ing, and operating a building [9]. During the planning and design phases
Building information modeling (BIM) is effective in three- of a new building construction project, the architect must assess wheth-
dimensional (3D) visualization and data/information storage for plan- er the planned fire compartment, escape route and fire safety equip-
ning, constructing and operating/maintaining building construction ment meet regulations [10]. In the operation phase, the occupants/
projects [1]. Currently, researchers worldwide are considering potential users of a building should be familiar with the escape routes in case of
applications of BIM. Some BIM-based applications are mature and have fire and maintenance staff must have the relevant information (such
been widely used in practice, such as for construction interference de- as responsible staff and location) about fire safety equipment and en-
tection [2], four-dimensional (4D) schedule visualizations [3], and sure that the equipment is in good working order [11].
quantity take-offs [4]. However, many possible applications require fur- This work extends an earlier investigation [12] to develop a more
ther investigation to examine the relevant benefits/challenges of using comprehensive BIM-based model to support fire safety management
BIM, including integration with simulations of operations for scheduling in the design and operation of a building. The proposed model is com-
purposes [5], structural safety analysis [6], and fire safety management posed of four modules, which are evacuation assessment, escape route
[7,8]. The present study explores how BIM (with its 3D visualization planning, safety education, and equipment maintenance modules. The
and data storage capabilities) can facilitate fire safety management, first three modules use the 3D geometric data in BIM to assess fire safety
which is frequently carried out in a two-dimensional (2D) environment. requirements, while the equipment maintenance module combines
safety management with property management in a web-based
environment.
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 7 7456290. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews cur-
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (S.-H. Wang), [email protected]
(W.-C. Wang), [email protected] (K.-C. Wang), [email protected]
rent applications of BIM to fire safety management and the fire safety
(S.-Y. Shih). features of a typical building. Section 3 elucidates the proposed model.
1
Tel.: +886 3 5712121x54952; fax: +886 3 5716257. Section 4 presents the results of a case study in which BIM is utilized.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.02.001
0926-5805/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: S.-H. Wang, et al., Applying building information modeling to support fire safety management, Automation in Construc-
tion (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.02.001
2 S.-H. Wang et al. / Automation in Construction xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

Section 5 draws conclusions and provides recommendations for future Raubal and Egenhofer [18] found that the degree of architectural differen-
research. tiation, which refers to unique building characteristics that people can use
to orientate themselves, markedly affects the ease with which personnel
2. Literature review can find their way through the building (a human characteristic). Conse-
quently, building characteristics are the most important consideration in
2.1. Current applications of BIM in fire safety management fire safety design.

Most studies of the application of BIM to fire safety management 2.2.2. Safety egress time
have focused on providing 3D geometric data concerning building Safety egress time can refer to both required safety egress time
elements to support real-time information inquiries or evacuation sim- (RSET or trequired) and available safety egress time (ASET or tavailable).
ulations. For instance, Rüppel et al. [13] designed a system that can help The RSET is the period between the outbreak of a fire and the time
emergency rescuers to find the shortest way to a location within a com- when an occupant can reach a safe place, while the ASET is the period
plex building. The system combines ultra-wide band, wireless local area between the outbreak of a fire and the time when fatal environmental
network and radio frequency identification to establish a real-time in- conditions pertain [11,14,19].
formation query system. The 3D objects in a BIM model represent the According to safety regulations in Taiwan [20], the RSET (trequired) is
building components (such as walls, doors, and rooms), which support defined as,
the routing function of the system. The system is integrated with BIM to
provide rescuers with information about their immediate surroundings trequired ¼ tstart þ ttravel þ tqueue ð1Þ
when they are inside the building.
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Li et al. [8] introduced an algorithm called EASBL to locate first re- ΣA
sponders and trapped occupants in buildings in fire emergency re- tstart ¼ þ3 ð2Þ
30
sponse operations. The EASBL algorithm is based on BIM, as it relies on
BIM to improve the accuracy of room-level localization. The geometric li
ttravel ¼ max ð3Þ
information that is generated by a BIM model is used to identify possible v
locations of people, such as rooms, corridors and staircases. The building
information is also utilized to evaluate the accessibility of indoor spaces, ΣρA
tqueue ¼ ð4Þ
based on the layout and usage of the spaces that are retrieved from the ΣNeff Bst
BIM model. The use of annotations in BIM, such as room numbers, facil-
itates communication between an incident coordinator and deployed where, tstart = evacuation starting time, ttravel = walking time, and
first responders, so that the latter can rapidly follow commands to tqueue = time spent queuing to go through an exit. ΣA is the total floor
find specific locations to rescue an occupant. area (m2) of a particular area (room or zone) to be evaluated. li denotes
With respect to research that involves the simulation of evacuation, the distance from any point in this area to the closest exit. v (m/s) is the
Rüppel and Schatz [7] developed a prototype of an interactive game to walking speed. ρ is the density of people within the area. Neff is the
examine human behavior during the evacuation process in various effective flow coefficient. Bst is the width of the exit.
emergency scenarios. BIM-based models serve as a basis of game sce- Notably, Eqs. (1)–(4) are derived from the following assump-
narios, allowing such scenarios to be quickly established. The advantage tions [21]. (1) The occupants are uniformly distributed in the evacuation
of this scheme is that designers, creators, operators, and users of a build- area; (2) occupants are evacuated by following escape routes to which
ing, as well as rescue forces, can simulate various scenarios in the they are directed; (3) evacuated occupants walk at the same speed;
shortest possible time. (4) if multiple escape routes are available, then the closest one will be
Abolghasemzadeh [14] proposed a method of simulating building selected for evacuation.
egress, which takes into account the behavioral response of occupants The ASET (tavailable) is calculated as the time between fire ignition
to changeable environmental conditions in case of a fire. His method and the establishment of extreme conditions that a person cannot toler-
was implemented in the BIM environment, where all building elements ate heat, toxicity, or smoke. Table 1 lists the personnel's tolerance limits
are directly accessible in the egress analysis. An occupant of a building of various hazards, defined by the SFPE (Safe Fire Protective Engineer-
can be modeled in a BIM environment as an “agent” with appropriate ing) manual [19]. For each hazard, the duration to reach the tolerance
characteristics. The agent's motion can then be analyzed and visualized limit can be calculated. Then, tavailable is the shortest of the three calcu-
in the building model. lated durations, because exceeding this shortest duration will likely be
fatal or at least cause serious casualties.
2.2. Fire safety features of a building Calculations of the ASET and the RSET are crucial to ensuring safe es-
cape in the case of fire [11]. The evacuation must be completed (RSET)
2.2.1. Evacuation capability of building before fatal conditions are reached (ASET).
Fire safety can be defined as incorporating fire prevention, limiting
the spread of fire and smoke, extinguishing a fire and the probability of 2.2.3. Evacuation simulation models
making a quick and safe exit [11]. The probability of a safe escape is a Computer simulation modeling allows for testing of numerous
major determinant of the fire safety features of building [15,16]. The es- environment-specific safety evacuation scenarios at low cost [22]. The
cape time depends on characteristics of the fire (such as growth, smoke evacuation simulation model is based on the fire scenario, the distance
yield, toxicity and heat generated), human characteristics (such as per- to exits, the walking velocity and the flow rate capacity [23]. Simulation
sonality, observational abilities, responsibility for other evacuees, and fa- studies typically fall into one of the following three categories [22];
miliarity with the layout of the building), and characteristics of the
building (such as its layout, constituent materials, compartments, densi-
Table 1
ty of occupants, ease of finding a way through the building, and mainte- Personnel tolerance limits for various hazards, as defined by the SFPE manual.
nance) [11].
Hazard Tolerance limit
Of the above three characteristics, building characteristics decisively
affect the other two types of characteristics [11]. For example, building Heat convection Temperature N 60 °C.
configuration and the use of materials can influence the characteristics Toxicity Concentration of carbon monoxide (CO) N 1400 ppm.
Smoke coverage Visibility b 2 m.
of fires, including ignition sources, fuels, and fire development [17].

Please cite this article as: S.-H. Wang, et al., Applying building information modeling to support fire safety management, Automation in Construc-
tion (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.02.001
S.-H. Wang et al. / Automation in Construction xxx (2015) xxx–xxx 3

(1) crowd evacuation from buildings, (2) crowd evacuation from urban
roadways, and (3) crowd behavior during evacuation. Of these simula-
tion studies, fire simulations are usually of major concern.
Several evacuation simulation software packages have been
developed, including SIMULEX [24], FDS [25], FDS + Evac [26], and
EXODUS [27]. Among them, the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) has
been under development for almost 25 years [25], and is utilized in
the proposed evacuation assessment module herein. FDS is a computa-
tional fluid dynamic model of fire-driven fluid flow and it has been uti-
lized to solve practical fire problems in fire protection engineering [25].
Additionally, FDS can use Smokeview to output a 3D visualization of the
distribution of the smoke. Although the FDS-based simulation has ex-
cellent features, the establishment of a 3D simulation environment is
time-consuming [13].

2.2.4. Maintenance of fire safety facilities

Around 75% of fires are not extinguished by outside firefighting units;
rather, they either extinguish by themselves or by occupants [11]. The
fire safety facilities of a fire escape must be in good order to ensure its
safety. However, in practice, such facilities tend to be maintained rather
poorly [11]. Therefore, maintaining fire safety facilities/equipment to en-
sure availability and good condition is essential to survival in a fire
emergency. Fig. 2. Menu for selecting category of equipment scheduled for maintenance.
A survey of the status of fire precaution systems in 146 hotels in
Spain revealed two major classes of defect — documentary defects and
Second, a model that can be used to visualize all fire safety equip-
technical defects [28]. Documentary defects include the missing of a
ment in a 3D building environment and to access data/information
technical installation document or certificates of maintenance contracts
(such as current conditions) about each piece of equipment rapidly in
for fire safety equipment. Technical defects include the absence of
an integrated manner, is critical for an effective fire safety management
smoke detection and alarm devices, defective signage or difficult access
system.
to firefighting equipment (fire extinguishers and hydrants). According-
ly, fire equipment documents must be kept in a database [29].
3. Proposed model
2.3. Summary
The proposed model applies BIM's capabilities of 3D visualization
Two issues raised in this review are summarized here. First, most rel- and data storage to support fire safety management. The model consists
evant research has exploited BIM's ability to provide 3D geometric data of four modules — evacuation assessment, escape route planning, safety
concerning building elements to support fire safety evaluations. In this education, and equipment maintenance modules. Fig. 1 displays the
study, the proposed evacuation assessment module similarly uses model framework. The figure shows the inputs, evaluations, and out-
BIM, with a focus on calculating available and required egress durations. puts of each module.

BIM MODEL

Exits and possible Planned escape Fire equipment

Input Geometric data BIM 3D model Hazardous areas
escape routes routes information

Equations
Evaluation FDS fire Escape distance Assessed by safety Make films using Add information
according to
simulation measurement staff work-through to BIM
regulations

Required egress Available egress Acceptance of 3D representation 3D videos of

Output Integrated data
time time escape routes of hazardous areas escape routes

Equipment
Escape route
Evacuation assessment module Safety education module maintenance
planning module
module

Fig. 1. Four modules of proposed model.

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4 S.-H. Wang et al. / Automation in Construction xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

maintenance information/data are also included in the equipment

maintenance module of the BIM model.

3.1. Evacuation assessment module

The proposed evacuation assessment module evaluates the RSET

and the ASET. Consistent with the regulations in Taiwan, the RSET is cal-
culated using Eqs. (1)–(4). The ASET is calculated using the SFPE toler-
Fig. 3. Part of the code that uses SQL to implement the search function in the maintenance
ance limits in Table 1, and the results obtained using the FDS [25]. If
module. the RSET is shorter than the ASET, then the evacuation of the building
is safe.
To obtain the RSET, geometric data are firstly extracted from the BIM
The first two modules are utilized in the planning/design phase of a model. The geometric data include the total floor area of the area of in-
building construction project. The evacuation assessment module eval- terest (m2), the distance of any point within the area to the exit (m), the
uates whether the available safety egress time (ASET) exceeds the re- width of the exit (m), and others. Next, the RSET is obtained using
quired safety egress time (RSET) for occupants in a particular area of a Eqs. (1)–(4).
building when a fire breaks out. The escape route planning module The ASET is calculated using the following steps:
checks whether an escape route in a particular area is acceptable ac-
cording to the escape distance to an exit. 1. Using PyroSim to transfer the BIM DWG files to FDS files — First,
The last two modules are applied in the operating phase of a build- DWG files are generated using the BIM model. These DWG files are
ing. Evacuees may not know all possible exit routes, and so may end then transformed by PyroSim to FDS files for use in the FDS. PyroSim
up using inferior routes. The safety education module helps occupants is a graphical user interface for FDS [30].
to visualize the hazardous areas on a 3D model and escape routes in 2. Running FDS — Several combustion parameters must be set to exe-
3D simulation videos. Next, the equipment maintenance module con- cute the FDS. These parameters include the combustion reactants,
tains data/information (such as maintenance records and equipment heat release rate, ignition location, points at which visibility and tem-
manufacturers) about fire safety equipment (such as fire extinguishers perature are measured, simulation time, ambient temperature, and
and fire hydrants) to support their maintenance. Notably, equipment others. As required the safety regulations in Taiwan [20], the points
maintenance module is implemented as a web-based prototype for re- at which visibility (related to the smoke coverage in Table 1) is mea-
mote management. sured are 1.8 m above ground [31].
Autodesk Revit is utilized herein to develop the proposed BIM model 3. Computing the ASET — FDS simulation results are used to find the
owing to its popularity in Taiwan. Implementing the first three modules times taken to reach the personnel's tolerance limits for the three
requires a BIM model with a level of detail (LOD) of 200. An LOD 200 hazards that are defined by the SFPE manual. Then, the ASET is the
BIM model should contain columns, beams, walls, slabs, windows, and shortest of these three calculated durations. The tolerance limits
doors as objects, along with their size, shape, location, orientation and are a temperature of 60 °C, a concentration of carbon monoxide of
geometric data (such as length, area, and volume) [1]. Additional 1400 ppm, and a visibility of 2 m.

Equipment maintenance module

Revit model in office computer Database

MS Access

Fire safety equipment

in the building

Remote control

Check the location and other information of

fire safety equipment

User
Mobile device

Fig. 4. Web-based prototype of the equipment maintenance module.

Please cite this article as: S.-H. Wang, et al., Applying building information modeling to support fire safety management, Automation in Construc-
tion (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.02.001
S.-H. Wang et al. / Automation in Construction xxx (2015) xxx–xxx 5

videos of escape routes. The first of these two deliverables is gener-

ated in two steps:

1. First, the safety staff of the building identifies areas that store danger-
ous materials (such as oxidizing, flammable, and pyrophoric solids/
liquids) or those areas in which dangerous machines are operated
(such as high-voltage rooms or mechanical/electrical operation
rooms).
2. Then, these identified hazardous areas are marked in color in the BIM
3D model.

The second deliverable of this module, 3D videos of escape routes, is

based on the results of evaluations of routes by the aforementioned es-
cape route planning module. An acceptable escape route will be indicat-
ed using a 3D escape direction map (rather than the conventional 2D
escape direction map) and a film using the BIM's “walkthrough” func-
tion. Occupants can visualize these 3D escape direction maps and
films, which are especially educational for new-comers to the building.

3.4. Equipment maintenance module

The proposed equipment maintenance module adopts the BIM's

data/information storage capability to help maintenance staff to re-
Fig. 5. Layout of circular building in case project.
trieve quickly required data/information about fire safety equipment
or devices. These data/this information are about each piece of
equipment, including its name, size, location, code of the area in
which it is located, shape, brand, time of most recent inspection, time
3.2. Escape route planning module for maintenance, responsible maintenance staff, maintenance records,
warranty, component specifications, operating manuals, maintenance
An escape route is planned to meet Taiwan's building regulations contract, warranty contractor, manufacturer, unit price, accessories,
[32]. The regulations specify a maximum escape distance from any and current conditions.
point in a specific area (such as a room) to an exit in a building of a par- In the past, the above data about equipment were normally
ticular type (such as industrial or residential). The escape route plan- stored by different maintenance/administration staff or the manu-
ning module uses the BIM model to measure the maximum escape facturers, and were not stored in a single platform. Accordingly, the
distance to ensure the acceptability of an escape route. data were easily lost as time passed and took a long time to find
This module is implemented as follows. First, in a manner similar to when needed.
that in the conventional method, the module user identifies the avail- In proposed equipment maintenance module, the data/information
able escape exit (or stairs). Second, BIM 3D visualization is carried out are stored in each equipment object in the BIM model. Hence, this pro-
to help preliminarily allocate the escape areas of the building to each posed module supports the following five main applications:
exit. Third, the BIM's “dimension” function is used to measure the dis-
tance between the farthest point of each escape area (usually a corner 1. Application 4-1: retrieving data/information about each piece of
of the area) and the exit to ensure that the maximum escape distance equipment to support routine maintenance tasks or emergency re-
is not exceeded. sponses.
2. Application 4-2: integrating data/information about all of the
equipment/devices in a list. To do so, the users of the module firstly
3.3. Safety education module select the type of equipment and the data fields to be examined
using the Revit functions “category” and “fields”, respectively. Then,
The safety education module supports fire safety management they use the “schedule” function to generate a summary sheet of
by the 3D representation of hazardous areas and providing 3D all selected equipment.

Fig. 6. Cross-sectional view of the case building.

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tion (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.02.001
6 S.-H. Wang et al. / Automation in Construction xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

Fig. 7. Stairs for evacuation in Revit 3D model.

3. Application 4-3: using the “filter” function to identify equipment maintenance staff to use a mobile device (such as cell phone or Tablet
with particular characteristics (such as being in a bad condition or PC) in any part of a building (in which the web can be accessed) to link
being in a particular area) for special attention. remotely to a desktop computer by installing TeamViewer software.
4. Application 4-4: proactively identifying equipment to be maintained Fig. 4 shows such a remote management scheme using equipment
in the next maintenance period by sorting “time for maintenance” maintenance module. The advantage of such a web-based application
data. This application is implemented in the following three steps. is considerable in a large and complex building.
(1) Using DBlink API (Application Programming Interface) to trans-
4. Case study
fer equipment objects to MicroSoft Access.
(2) Establishing a menu for selecting an equipment category to de-
The following subsections describe the results of applying the pro-
termine whether a particular piece of equipment is scheduled
for maintenance in a specified period (such as one month). posed model in a case study. The four modules are run on a genuine
Intel 3.4 GHz CPU, 16 G SRAM, with a Windows 7 computer operating
Fig. 2 presents an example of such a selection menu.
(3) Developing a search function based on Structured Query Lan- system.
guage (SQL). Fig. 3 displays some of the code that uses SQL to im-
plement the search function in the maintenance module. 4.1. Project description

The case study concerns a project that involves a high-tech related

5. Application 4-5: operating a web-based prototype of the maintenance facility in northern Taiwan that is used to conduct cutting-edge research
module to support management remotely. Such a web-based imple- into synchrotron light sources. The facility building (case building) is
mentation is based on outputting the results obtained using the Revit circular and it looks like a “donut ring”, as displayed in Fig. 5. The case
model in. DWF files, which then can be viewed using the Internet Ex- building is divided into an inner ring (zone A), a shielding tunnel
plorer (IE) browser. Therefore, the prototype of this module enables (zone B, shaded area in Fig. 5) and an outer ring (zone C). The shielding

(a) DWG files (b) FDS files

Fig. 8. Converting Revit 3D files to FDS files.

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S.-H. Wang et al. / Automation in Construction xxx (2015) xxx–xxx 7

tunnel is located between the inner and outer rings. The inner and the
outer diameters of the circular building are approximately 65 m and
110 m, respectively.
As shown in Fig. 6, this case building is on a hill and it is about 14.7 m
high. Most of the building has three floors but a small part has four floors.
The maximum difference between the elevations of the north and the
south sides of the building is around 14 m. Around half of the building
is underground level, making safety evacuation an extremely important
issue.
Since half of the building is underground, the evacuation exits must
be on the second floor or higher. Accordingly, vertical evacuation routes
must be closely considered. This circular building has 12 stairs, num-
bered S01 to S12, as presented in Fig. 7, that can reach the ground
floor for evacuation. Of these stairs, S07 to S10 are located in the inner
ring, and the rest are located in the outer ring.
Each column of the building structure has a column number (from Fig. 10. Distribution of smoke in S07 area 550 s after ignition of fire.

No. 1 to No. 48, as displayed in Fig. 7) to help locate it. A BIM model of
the case building during construction phase was made available using
Autodesk Revit [33]. the average heat release rate for general electric appliances); ignition
Based on the experience of the architect and the fire safety staff, oc- location = high-voltage station between columns 3 and 4; points of
cupants who use stair S07 as an exit will face the most danger because measurement of visibility and temperature = 1.8 m above the
they are in the deepest underground area. This area is between columns ground in the staircase exit; simulation time = 10 min, and ambient
No. 3 and No. 11, as presented in Fig. 7. In the following sections, where temperature = 25 °C.
applicable, the area in which occupants use stair S07 as an exit (the S07 3. Computing the ASET — As shown in Fig. 9, the results of the FDS sim-
area) will be used to illustrate the evaluations of the proposed modules. ulation reveal that the visibility in staircase S07 dropped from 30 m
to 2 m, which is the tolerance limit [19], after the fire had burned
4.2. Evacuation assessment for 550 s (approximately 9.2 min). Restated, visibility was too low
(less than 2 m) for evacuees to escape from the fire after 9.2 min.
The evacuation assessment module is applied to calculate the RSET Fig. 10 plots the distribution of smoke in the S07 area 550 s after
and ASET to determine whether the fire evacuation design of the case the ignition of the fire. Next, FDS simulations are performed to find
building is acceptable. As stated above, evacuation of the S07 area is the durations to reach the other two tolerance limits (temperature
considered as an example. and carbon monoxide). After the fire had burned for more than
To obtain the RSET, geometric data are firstly extracted from the BIM 10 min, neither of these two tolerance limits had been reached, so
model. The geometric data concerning stair S07 area include its total floor the ASET was 9.2 min (the shortest).
area (ΣA) = 372 m2, maximum walking distance (li) = 46 m, and exit
width (Bst) = 1.64 m. Based on suggestions in the technical manual of
fire safety in Taiwan [34], the other parameters are set as follows; walking
speed (v) = 72 (m/min), occupant density (ρ) = 0.07 (persons/m2), and
effective flow coefficient (Neff) = 90 (persons/min/m).
Next, the RSET is determined to be 4.46 min by applying
Eqs. (1)– (4). The calculations are as follows:
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi !
372 46 0:07 372
t required ¼ t start þ t travel þ t queue ¼ þ3 þ þ
30 72 90 1:64
¼ 3:64 þ 0:64 þ 0:18 ¼ 4:46: ð5Þ

The ASET is calculated in the following steps.

1. Using PyroSim to convert BIM DWG files to FDS files — Fig. 8 displays
a certain part of the 3D model of the S07 area, presented in the Revit
DWG files and FDS files, respectively.
2. Running FDS — The combustion parameters are set as follows; com-
bustion reactants are cables; heat release rate = 580 KW (twice of

Fig. 9. Visibility versus time in S07 staircase. Fig. 11. Measuring distance between farthest point of the S07 area and the exit staircase.

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8 S.-H. Wang et al. / Automation in Construction xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

floor. In these areas are located high-voltage or mechanical/electrical en-

gines, with many flammable and combustible wires. In the BIM model,
these dangerous areas are indicated in red, as shown in Fig. 12. This
map of hazards provides information for safety/maintenance staff and
occupants.
The second deliverable of this module — 3D videos of escape routes —
are very useful in the case project herein because the building is a circu-
lar ring structure so all its parts are very similar. Based on the results of
the evaluation using the previously described escape route planning
module, Fig. 13 presents a 3D escape direction map (rather than a con-
ventional 2D escape direction map) using the S07 area, as an example.
Moreover, the BIM's “walkthrough” function is used to make a 3D film
of the escape route. Fig. 14 displays a snapshot from 3D film of walking
through an escape route. Occupants can look at the 3D escape direction
maps and watch the films when they move into the building.

4.5. Equipment maintenance

The fire safety equipment in this half-underground case building must

be maintained in good condition to prevent potential disasters. This
Fig. 12. Distribution of hazardous areas in case building. equipment includes fire extinguishers, fire hydrants, fire detectors,
smoke extraction equipment, emergency lights, and other devices. The
proposed equipment maintenance module is implemented in the case
Finally, since the RSET (4.46 min) is less than the ASET (9.2 min), the
project.
fire safety evacuation design of the S07 area of the case building is ac-
Fig. 15 presents an example of the retrieval of data/information
ceptable. Other evacuation areas are assessed similarly.
about a fire extinguisher to support routine maintenance (Applica-
tion 4-1). As needed, the maintenance staff can promptly check the
4.3. Escape route planning
time for maintenance, maintenance records, warranty, component
specifications, operation manuals, unit prices, and current equip-
According to the Taiwan building regulations [32], the maximum es-
ment condition. All these data for fire equipment are stored in a
cape distance between any area and one exit (via the stairs) for the case
single platform.
building (industrial type) is 70 m. Initially, the architect of the case pro-
Fig. 16 shows an example of data/information about a fire hydrant
ject used 2D drawings to measure the escape distance [35]. The pro-
in the IE browser, retrieved by remotely clicking the corresponding
posed escape route planning module uses the 3D Revit model to
object in the BIM model on a Tablet PC (Application 4-5). A module
measure the escape distance from each area.
user can easily operate the above Applications 4-1–4-4 in a web en-
Consider for example the S07 area, as displayed in Fig. 11. Two es-
vironment. Remote management is especially useful for this large
cape routes from the two farthest corners of this area are examined.
case building.
The BIM's “dimension” functions are utilized to determine that the dis-
tances between the corners and staircase S07 are around 46 m and
4.6. Discussion
37 m, respectively, which are shorter than the maximum allowed dis-
tance of 70 m. Therefore, occupants in this area should take staircase
The results obtained by this case study were presented to the safety
S07 as an escape exit. Other escape areas in the case building are inves-
and maintenance staff of the case building. Their feedback and sugges-
tigated similarly.
tions for improvement are summarized below.
4.4. Safety education 1. Evacuation assessment module:
• Since the geometric data generated by the BIM model are more ac-
The safety education module provides a 3D representation of hazard- curate than those generated by conventional 3D models, the results
ous areas and 3D videos of escape routes. First, the safety staff of the case of a BIM-based simulation are more accurate than those of a con-
building indicate the hazardous areas, most of which are on the second ventional 3D model-based simulation.

Fig. 13. Escape directions marked in BIM 3D model.

Please cite this article as: S.-H. Wang, et al., Applying building information modeling to support fire safety management, Automation in Construc-
tion (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.02.001
S.-H. Wang et al. / Automation in Construction xxx (2015) xxx–xxx 9

• The current 3D presentation should be improved to include infor-

mation about safety equipment, such as the locations of fire extin-
guishers and hydrants.

4. Equipment maintenance module:

• Using BIM as a platform to store all of the data and records concerning
fire safety equipment can help maintenance staff to shorten the data-
gathering time, increasing the effectiveness of maintenance.
• This module should be further integrated with other property man-
agement models (including furniture and elevators management
models).

5. Conclusion
Fig. 14. Snapshot from 3D film of walking through an escape route.
This work applied BIM's 3D geometric data and visualization to sup-
port evacuation assessments, escape route planning, and safety educa-
• The BIM model should be applied to other excavation simulation tion. The BIM's data/information storage ability is exploited herein in
software packages (such as SIMULEX and EXODUS) to improve support of the maintenance of fire safety equipment. The results of the
safety simulations. case study have favorably demonstrated that BIM has an important
role in improving current fire safety management practices, highlight-
2. Escape route planning module: ing the contributions of this work.
• The BIM model allows the overall building environment to be visu- In this study, many directions for future research, other than those
alized to identify the floor and staircase for escape from the case mentioned in the discussion above, were identified. First, with respect
building. to the evacuation assessment module, future work should consider
• The use of the proposed module to double-check the manual calcu- the effect of human characteristics and various building characteristics
lations is welcome in the early project phase. (such as wall materials).
Second, with respect to the escape route planning module, BIM's “di-
3. Safety education module: mension” function for dynamically re-measuring escape routes in the
• A 3D representation helps users memorize hazardous areas and es- operation phase (when many new objects that have been moved into
cape routes. 3D direction maps are more easily understood than the building can block originally planned routes) should be exploited.
conventional 2D ones. Third, with respect to the safety education module, the developed 3D

Fig. 15. Information concerning a fire extinguisher retrieved from maintenance module.

Please cite this article as: S.-H. Wang, et al., Applying building information modeling to support fire safety management, Automation in Construc-
tion (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.02.001
10 S.-H. Wang et al. / Automation in Construction xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

Fig. 16. Data, information, and physical objects associated with fire hydrant, retrieved from web.

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Please cite this article as: S.-H. Wang, et al., Applying building information modeling to support fire safety management, Automation in Construc-
tion (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.02.001