6. Future Research

The analysis of the egress modelling results shows that there is a need to further investigate human factors associated with the use of combined egress components, e.g. messaging strategies for encouraging elevator usage. This would significantly improve the effectiveness of the strategies employing a combination of stairs and elevators. In a more general sense, there is a need to analyse more in depth the behaviours of the evacuees in relation to multiple egress components available for the evacuation and analyse the methods to inform evacuees on the appropriate actions to perform. The simulation work showed that the most effective strategies for this 50 storey building (the sole use of OEEs and the use of sky-bridges and transfer floors) are hypothetical strategies that are generally not implemented in today’s high-rise buildings. This also confirms previous findings by Kinsey (2011) which highlighted that the use of transfer floors produced the most efficient evacuation strategies due to the reduced waiting time period to use elevators. The exclusion of those strategies may be due to a lack of understanding regarding the behaviours of building occupants in the case of non-conventional strategies. An example is that some occupants may be afraid of height, leading them to avoid the use of sky-bridges. In this context, there is a need to investigate several variables such as the occupant level of training, the availability of staff, the type of population (e.g. different percentages of people with disabilities and types of disabilities, etc.), occupant loads, etc.