Hazardous Chemical Accident Evacuation Simulation and Analysis of Results

Yijie Song, Beibei Wang (), Xiaolu Wang, Yichen Zhang, Jiquan Zhang and Yilin Wang
Additional contact information
Yijie Song: Changchun Institute of Technology, College of Jilin Emergency Management, Changchun 130012, China
Beibei Wang: Changchun Institute of Technology, College of Jilin Emergency Management, Changchun 130012, China
Xiaolu Wang: Changchun Institute of Technology, College of Jilin Emergency Management, Changchun 130012, China
Yichen Zhang: Changchun Institute of Technology, College of Jilin Emergency Management, Changchun 130012, China
Jiquan Zhang: Institute of Natural Disaster Research, School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130117, China
Yilin Wang: Changchun Institute of Technology, College of Jilin Emergency Management, Changchun 130012, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 14, 1-24

Abstract: Chemical leakage accidents in chemical industrial parks pose significant threats to personnel safety, particularly during evacuation processes, where individual behavior and evacuation strategies have a considerable impact on overall efficiency. This study takes a leakage incident at an alkylation unit as a case study. First, ALOHA5.4.7 software was used to simulate the influence of meteorological conditions across different seasons on the dispersion range of toxic gases, thereby generating an annual comprehensive risk zone distribution map. Subsequently, different evacuation scenarios were constructed in Pathfinder2024.1.0605, with the integration of trigger mechanisms to simulate individual behaviors during evacuation, such as variations in risk perception and peer influence. Furthermore, this study expanded the conventional application scope of Pathfinder—typically limited to small-scale building evacuations—by successfully adapting it for large-scale evacuation simulations in chemical industrial parks. The feasibility of such simulations was thereby demonstrated, highlighting the software’s potential. According to the simulation results, exit configuration, shelter placement, and individual behavior modeling significantly affect the total evacuation time. This study provides both theoretical insights and practical guidance for emergency response planning in chemical industrial parks.

Keywords: hazardous chemical accident; toxic gas diffusion; range prediction; emergency evacuation simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/14/6415/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/14/6415/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:14:p:6415-:d:1700814

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().