FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-72/30

Title and Subtitle: GPSS/360 computer models to simulate aircraft passenger emergency evacuation

Report Date: September 1972

Authors: Folk, ED, Garner JD, Cook EA, Broadhurst JL

Abstract: Live tests of emergency evacuation of transport aircraft are becoming increasingly expensive as the planes grow to a size seating hundreds of passengers. Repeated tests, to cope with random variations, increase these costs, as well as risks of injuries to participants. A method of simulating such repeated tests, by use of computer models based on statistics from measured components of the escape path, has been developed. The models utilize GPSS, a computer programming language, to represent various features of the escape process: passenger mix, seating and exit configuration, door-opening delay, time on the escape slide, and slide capacity.

Key Words: Emergency Evacuation, Simulation, Computer Model

No. of Pages: 28