Human Behavior Effects on Cabin Configuration Design Using VacateAir

Factors of Aircraft cabin configuration, passenger/crew characteristics, human behaviors, and fire hazards in fire emergency can independently or interactively affect the evacuation efficiency of the Aircraft Evacuation System. Real experiments and computer evacuation simulations have been conducted to study the effects of cabin configuration and passenger/crew characteristics on evacuation efficiency. However, effects of human behaviors on evacuation efficiency, especially behaviors that have been identified in historical accidents, such as group evacuation and helping disabled, are rarely studied. Using an aircraft evacuation simulation model, VacateAir, this paper studies how critical human behaviors, such as group evacuation by following a leader and helping disabled evacuee, can interact with physical factors, such as fuselage width and seat arrangement, and therefore affect cabin configuration design. Taguchi Design of Experiments is then used to find optimal cabin configuration based on human behavior effects.