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Estimation of vertical displacement during ascending evacuation

Conference Paper · October 2016

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Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics (PED2016)
Hefei, China – Oct 17 – 21, 2016
Paper No. 122 (The number assigned by the EasyChair System)

Estimation of vertical displacement during ascending

evacuation
Amitava Halder, Kalev Kuklane
Thermal Environment Laboratory, Division of Ergonomics and Aerosol Technology, Department of
Design Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
[email protected]; [email protected]

Abstract - This paper describes an ascending evacuation model based on physical work capacity, when exhaustion
may play a key role during evacuation. The experiment was carried out on a stair machine (StairMaster, SM5, USA)
which involved 13 male and 12 female subjects. Individual climbing speeds at 50 and 70 % of their maximal aerobic
capacity (% VO2max) level (L1 and L2) were selected for 3 minutes, and 90 %, the last level (L3) was up to 5 minutes
or until exhaustion for the model development on the first 19 subjects. The model was the n validated on the last 6
subjects with intended exercise levels at their 60, 75 and 90 % of their maximal aerobic capacity corresponding up to
120, 15 and 5 minutes of continuous work, respectively. The maximum vertical displacement (hvert in m/min) can be
calculated according to: hvert = -21.7727+0.4024*VO 2max+0.2658*% VO 2max.

Keywords: Physical work capacity; Oxygen consumption; Heart rate; Fatigue; Evacuation speed; Stairs

1. Introduction
The physiological fatigue may considerably affect the evacuation performance and outcome during
ascending long stairs [1]. Ascending velocity and the reduction of speeds are related to the distance to be
covered [2, 3]. Stair climbing and step tests have been used as a method for physical assessments and
evaluations of cardiovascular ability in sports and medical fields for long time [4-8]. However, the studies
on ascending evacuation in relation to physical work ability are not readily available [3]. Nevertheless,
some interesting attempts have been made in the recent years [9]. It has been shown that ascent on stairs
requires about twice the effort than descending the same stairs [7].

Oxygen consumption capacity is not the only limiting physiological factor. Repetitive movements and
continuous force production are required for both central and peripheral muscles in the demanding task
during ascending many stairs, especially in an emergency situation [10]. Previous research has shown that
people manage to keep up an activity for up to 5 minutes if it is carried out at about 90 % of their maximal
oxygen consumption (VO2max ) level (90 % for a trained person lays in average around 600 W/m2. Moreover,
a work at about 475 W/m2 (≈70 % of VO2max) can be contained for about 15-20 min [11]. These findings
had an agreement to an earlier summary by Louhevaara et al. (1986) [12]. At the onset of the exercise,
anaerobic energy yielding processes dominate until oxygen transport to the working muscle tissues
develops [13]. Anaerobic processes cause build-up of lactic acid in working muscles that needs to be taken
care of oxygenation processes. The critical time of lactic acid development for performance is after 2
minutes after onset of exercise [8]. Thus, evacuation that takes 2-3 minutes or more may be affected by
either cardiorespiratory capacity or lactate tolerance or both. Reaching any of these limits does reduce
ascending speed, and thus, evacuation flow. Also, a highly repetitive activity may cause local fatigue in the
muscles due to development of lactate as the blood flow, and thus, oxygen supply to the working muscles
at that pace is not sufficient [14, 15] in spite of that one may have reached optimum oxygen consumption
from whole body perspective.

The objective of the laboratory tests was to examine if the physical work of real stair climbing could
be simulated on a stair machine, and thus, be utilized in the future for data collection on variety of
populations at lower costs, but also on specific populations, e.g. people with disabilities, elderly etc., in a
controlled and safer environment than real tall buildings. The method was then expected to function for
testing buildings “higher” than available. Also, it was expected that by observing the relationship
“evacuation of the group – evacuation of an individual – laboratory simulation of individual evacuation” it

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might be possible to estimate group evacuation from the laboratory tests. Based on field tests, the laboratory
exercise was designed for developing a mathematical model of ascending evacuation based on human
physical capacity.

2. Methods
2.1. Study design
Three levels of physical load were selected in order to develop the model of work capacity associate
with ascending velocity. These exertion levels were to represent the time limited activity levels as defined
by Holmér and Gavhed [11] and redrawn by Bohgard et al. [16], and cover most of the possible emergency
evacuation scenarios:
• 50 % of individual VO2max – heavy work that can be continuously maintained up to 2 hours;
• 70 % of individual VO2max – very heavy work that can be continuously maintained up to 15 minutes;
• 90 % of individual VO2max – near maximal work that can be continuously maintained up to 5 minutes.

In order to define the individual work load at defined VO2max level, all the recruited subjects had to take part
the maximal capacity (VO2max) test. The VO2max test was performed by running with progressive resistance
with increasing speed up to a manageable level and followed by increasing inclination on treadmill until
exhaustion [17, 18]. Before the maximal aerobic capacity test, thorough information on the study was given
and written consent was acquired.

2.2. Subjects
Table 1 summarizes the subjects’ age, height, weight, maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max ) and
maximal heart rate (HR max) for females and males separately, for development and validation groups,
and altogether. The first 19 subjects were used for model development and the rest (6) for validation.
The female and male data was pooled for analysis and model development. The age and VO 2max of the
development and validation groups did differ significantly (t-test, p<0.01), but not the other
parameters.

Table 1. Subject characteristics: mean (SD). VO 2max: - maximal oxygen consumption; HRmax: -
maximal heart rate.
No Age (years) Height (m) Weight (kg) VO2max HRmax
(ml/kg/min) (b/min)
Female 12 33.8 (13.4) 1.69 (0.06) 65.8 (6.9) 47.2 (9.7) 186 (13)
Male 13 36.6 (11.6) 1.75 (0.07) 82.3 (20.8) 47.0 (8.6) 195 (12)
Development 19 33.1 (10.7) 1.73 (0.07) 74.7 (19.4) 48.8 (8.7) 191 (13)
Validation 6 42.2 (15.5) 1.70 (0.07) 73.6 (11.2) 41.7(8.1) 192 (15)
All 25 35.3 (12.3) 1.72 (0.07) 74.4 (17.6) 47.1 (9.0) 191 (13)

The study involved the following moments: arrival of the subject, instrumenting the subject and
climbing on the stair machine. The tasks on stair machine were to climb the stairs at selected pace in
three levels (L1, L2 and L3) (Fig.1). Any changes of the velocity were not possible during the
exercise on each level. Nevertheless, since all subjects of this study did not climb the stairs with the
same step rate (SR), then their relative effort was set individually at approximately the same and
known level.

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 Fig. 1: A fully instrumented subject
who performed the tests on the
StairMaster.

The last task estimated at 90 % VO2max SR level (L3) which was carried out up to 5 minutes or until
exhaustion. Such setup allowed studying the effect of pace on oxygen consumption but also the effect of
body size and fitness. Step rates for each climbing level were calculated from VO 2max and the intended
percentage of maximal effort individually.

2.3. Equipment
The stair machine (SM5, StairMaster, USA) allows adjusting the physical load to 20 levels with SRs
ranging from 24 to 162 steps per minute (step height 20.5 cm and depth 25.0 cm). Each level differed from
the previous and the next by 7-8 steps/min. For model development the closest estimated SR to the
individual VO2max percentage was chosen. However, as during the development phase some subjects did
not manage to complete the expected time (5 minutes) with the individual highest load then during the
validation phase the lowest closest SR corresponding to the estimation was selected.

After arrival the subjects began preparation by wearing a heart rate belt and monitor (RS400, Polar
Electro, Finland). The subjects were also equipped with an EMG equipment (ME6000, Megawin, Finland)
and maximum voluntary contraction exercise was carried out before proceeding to the stair machine.
Oxygen consumption was measured with the same equipment as in the field (Metamax II, Cortex Medical
GmbH, Germany). EMG results are reported elsewhere [19].

2.4. Model development

During the development phase, the percentage work capacity data at first two lower workloads at 50
and 70 % of each individual’s VO2max related calculated speed levels (L1 and L2) reached around 60 and
75 %, respectively. Therefore, SR levels work capacity data for both the development and validation phases
were averaged together, and all three (L1, L2 and L3) levels were defined as 60, 75 and 90 % of VO2max,
respectively (Table 2).

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 Table 2: The study conditions and related performance mean (SD) during exercise in all three levels
on stair machine for all subjects (N=25).
Parameters L1 (60 % VO2max) L2 (75 % VO2max) L3 (90 % VO2max)
Corresponding SM5 level 7 (2) 10 (2) 13 (2)
Climbing duration (s) 180 180 Minimum 300
Climbing managed (s) 180.0 (0.0) 180.0 (0.0) 259.2 (68.7)
Step rate (SR) steps/min 66.1 (16.3) 88.3 (17.0) 109.4 (17.9)
Average speedmax (m/s) 0.36 (0.09) 0.48 (0.09) 0.59 (0.10)
hvert (m/min) 13.2 (3.3) 17.7 (3.4) 21.9 (3.6)
Heightreached (m) 39.7 (9.8) 53.0 (10.2) 95.0 (30.8)
N.B.: Stair climbing performance were evaluated by average climbing duration managed in seconds (s); step rate (SR)
per min (steps/min); average maximum speed (Speedmax) in (m/s); vertical displacement (hvert) in meter per min
(m/min); calculated vertical height reached (Height reached) in meter (m) for each levels in Table 2 and 4.

For the model development and validation, a multivariable linear regression was utilised in
XLSTAT (Version 2014.1.01, Addinsoft). As the work load does not only depend on the SR but also
on step height, then the data analysis was run for vertical displacement, as well. The prediction was
expected to be usable together with population fitness data [20-22]. All details on model development
together with limitations of the model, and suggested the literature and databases that allow for
practical use are published in a paper by Kuklane and Halder (2016) [23].

3. Results and discussion

3.1 Maximum aerobic capacity tests (VO2max)
Subjects maximum aerobic capacity were determined by the maximum values for heart rate
(HRmax) in beats per minute (b/min), maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max) in millilitre/kg/minute
(ml/kg/min) recorded during the test. The relative average maximum VO2 values during the maximum
test were not varied so much between male and female. However, the HRmax was higher for the male
than female during the VO2max test (Table 3).

Table 3: Shows the maximum capacity test results mean (SD) for all (N=25) subjects and comparison
between male and female before the test on stair machine.
VO2max (l/min) VO2max (ml/kg/min) HRmax (b/min)
3.43 (0.72) 47.1 (9.0) 190.9 (13.2)
Parameters Male (N=13) Female (N=12)
VO2max (l/min) 3.77 (0.69) 3.08 (0.60)
VO2max (ml/kg/min) 47.0 (8.6) 47.2 (9.7)
HRmax (b/min) 195.4 (12.4) 186.1 (12.9)

3.2 Stair climbing tests

The physical work load values including maximum HR, average relative maximum VO2 obtained at
L3 reached about 90-95% of the VO2max test (Table 4). This study results also showed that the average
ascending duration was about 4.32 min. The participants have managed to climb an average 95 m vertically
in these calculated close to individual maximum ascending speeds. The two third of the participants (N=17)
out of 25 who have managed to sustain ascending for this stipulated 5-min duration and they termed it was
extremely hard task. On the contrary, the rest 8 participants did quit before stipulated 5-min because of
exhaustion, and their quitting times started from the 2nd min. The joint analysis of EMG and VO2 results
does discuss if discontinuation was related to oxygen consumption capacity or local muscle fatigue. An
excessive workload for the leg muscles might force the subjects to quit and did not allow the VO2 to reach
the equal values which were obtained during the VO2max test [19]. Preliminarily, it can be speculated that

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most discontinuations might have been related to insufficient energy supply through blood flow to local
muscles for lifting the legs under highly repetitive activity.

Table 4: Stair climbing tests performance comparison between male (N=13) and female
(N=12) and overall all subjects (N=25) performance at level 3 (L3) or 90 % VO2max related
individual step rates (SR) are given below with mean (SD).
Parameters Male (N=13) Female (N=12)
Climbing managed (s) 180.00 (0.00) 180.00 (0.00)
Speedmax (m/s) 0.36 (0.08) 0.36 (0.10)
L1 (maximum 3 min SR (steps/min) 65.9 (15.4) 66.3 (18.0)
at 60 % of VO2max) hvert (m/min) 13.2 (3.1) 13.3 (3.6)
Heightreached (m) 39.6 (9.2) 39.8 (10.8)
%VO2max reached* 62.2 (4.9) 62.8 (5.6)
%HRmax reached # 71.5 (4.9) 77.3 (4.8)
Climbing managed (s) 180.00 (0.00) 180.00 (0.00)
Speedmax (m/s) 0.47 (0.08) 0.48 (0.1)
L2 (maximum 3 min SR (steps/min) 87.2 (15.7) 89.4 (19.0)
at 75 % of VO2max) hvert (m/min) 17.5 (3.1) 17.9 (3.8)
Heightreached (m) 52.3 (9.4) 53.7 (11.4)
%VO2max reached* 77.6 (7.5) 79.7 (5.6)
%HRmax reached # 83.9 (6.0) 89.9 (3.0)
Climbing managed (s) 235.38 (75.35) 285.00 (51.96)
Speedmax (m/s) 0.59 (0.09) 0.59 (0.11)
L3 (maximum 5 min SR (steps/min) 108.9 (16.2) 109.8 (20.2)
or until exhaustion hvert (m/min) 21.8 (3.2) 22.0 (4.0)
at 90 % of VO2max) Heightreached (m) 85.4 (30.1) 105.4 (29.1)
%VO2max reached* 92.5 (7.2) 94.8(4.6)
%HRmax reached # 94.8 (4.6) 98.0 (2.0)
L3 Average climbing performance for all subjects (N =25)
Climbing managed (s) 259.2 (68.7)
Speedmax (m/s) 0.59 (0.10)
SR (steps/min) and range 109.4 (17.9) and (68.0-133.0)
hvert (m/min) 21.8 (3.6)
Heightreached (m) 95.0 (30.8)
%VO2max reached* 93.6 (6.1)
%HRmax reached # 96.9 (3.0)
* %VO2max reached: percentage of VO2max reached during ascending
# %HRmax reached: percentage of HR max reached during ascending

As most of the subjects who quitted before 5 min were males, then it can be expected that relatively
large mass could affect the performance. However, it seems not to be the case as their body masses were
distributed between 65 and 128 kg and their VO2max levels were between 32.8 and 57.3 ml/kg/min, i.e. there
was a high variation even in selected SRs. Only their subjective complains at the end of the exercise were
related to the difficulty to lift the legs or pain in legs/joints. Also, in many subjects it was observed and
visible that they started to put more effort into their arms while they were gripping the stair machine
handlebars. This strategy does indicate an effort which was made by subjects to reduce the leg muscles load
in order to continue climbing, thus reduce the intensity of local fatigue. Simultaneously, as more body parts
will be working then the total oxygen uptake capacity, and not only blood supply to local muscles, would
at certain stage increase in importance for performance. However, all the participants have managed to

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‘survive’ the 3 min exercise duration in the two lower ascending intensities at L1 and L2 compared to the
L3.

3.3 Predictions for ascending evacuation

Based on available maximal capacity recordings of a few subjects who did participate in the field
trials and assuming that the tested population would correspond with their maximal capacity to the
measured student population [24] and utilizing multivariable linear regression (XLSTAT) a prediction
model was developed. Based on that, the step rate was calculated from VO2max and aimed percentage of
VO2max. According to Holmer and Gavhed (2007) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO
8996) [25] a person could manage about 5 minutes at one’s 80-90 % of VO2max, about 15 minutes at 70-80
% of VO2max and up to 2 hours at 50-60 % of VO2max. Thus the predictions were aimed towards 50, 70 and
90 % of each individual’s VO2max. The intended percentage of VO2max during predictions or development
phase (N=19) reached higher than the validation phase (N=6). However, as there was much less comparable
information available on lower workloads, then the measured values in the laboratory were quite close at
high workload but exceeded the prediction considerably at lower and medium workloads (Fig. 2).

Based on the first 19 laboratory experiment subjects, a new prediction model was developed and it
was validated on the 6 last subjects. As the original prediction underestimated the lower workloads, then
this time 60, 75 and 90 % of VO2max was aimed in order to match previously collected data. Adopting the
new prediction, no subject did quit, and the aimed percentages stayed within the standard deviation of the
measured values. Heart rate values were still closer to the maximal than VO 2 values indicating that an
additional strain could have been caused by other factors than physical work load only (Fig. 2 and Table
4).

a) L1 L2 L3 b) L1 L2 L3
Fig. 2: Measured percentage of maximal values of a) 19 subjects of the
development phase and b) 6 subjects of validation phase. Prediction was carried
out for relative VO2max values in ml/kg/min. The percent of maximal heart rate
(% of HRmax) are given for comparison. The thick horizontal lines mark the
intended percentages.

The prediction equation for the step rate (SR) in steps/min was:

Step rate (SR) = -108.8633+2.0121*VO2max +1.3289*%VO2max (1)

2
The fitness adjusted R was 0.915. Similar prediction based on heart rate led to a correlation with
adjusted R2 of 0.705.

Considering that the SR may not be the most useful for practical use due to the possible effect of step
height etc. then also an equation for vertical displacement (hvert, m/min) was suggested:

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 Vertical displacement (hvert)= -21.7727+0.4024*VO2max+0.2658*%VO2max (2)

4. Conclusions
A wide range of databases with human physical capacity information and results from field
experiments allowed to develop a physiological model of ascending evacuation. The model relates to
maximal physical capacity of a healthy individual. The vertical displacement can be calculated as
hvert = -21.7727+0.4024*VO2max+0.2658*%VO2max (R2 = 0.915). The equation was validated on 6 subjects
in the laboratory conditions. In order to allow a broad utilization of the prediction accurate fitness estimation
of the target populations is needed. Also, validation in field with different stairwell configuration, carried
load, age groups etc. would allow improvement of the model as a planning tool.

Acknowledgements
The study was supported by the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) and the Swedish
Fire Research Board (Brandforsk). Johan Norén from Briab – Brand & Riskingenjörerna AB and Mattias
Delin from DeBrand Sverige AB have been by our side along whole way with their advice related to
practical fire engineering. Many thanks to Karl Fridolf for leading the whole project, and Enrico Ronchi
who navigated into harbour at the end, both from Department of Fire Safety Engineering, Lund University,
Sweden.

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