Experimental Influence of Pedestrian Load on Individual and Group Evacuation Speed in Staircases

To obtain a relationship between evacuation speed and the load on pedestrians in fire cases, a series of individual and group evacuation experiments were conducted in load conditions of 0 kg, 5 kg, and 10 kg. In individual evacuation, the upward evacuation speed decreased as the floor increased while the downward evacuation speed changed very little with the floor. In group evacuation, the average group evacuation speed decreased as the pedestrian load increased. The group upward average evacuation speed was decreased by 25.7% as the load increased from 0 kg to 10 kg; the corresponding group downward average evacuation speed was decreased by 28.4% as the load increased from 0 kg to 10 kg.