Ontwikkeling en laboratoriumtest van geluidsbakens voor ontruiming van tunnels [Development and laboratory test of sound beacons for tunnel evacuation]
report
Purpose: Can people lost in dense smoke be guided by sound? In a previous test with (commercially available) sound beacons over the emergency exits of a tunnel barely 20% found the exits; "unacceptable" according to the Centre for Tunnel Safety of the Civil Engineering Division of the Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management. Instruction and advance demonstration of the sound enhances the performance greatly, but such demo is not realistic for unexpected emergencies in road tunnels. The question of the Centre for Tunnel Safety was how to improve the concept of sound beacons (which in itself holds high promises).
Methods: Taking the view that disoriented people are served best with a direct verbal message we implemented the English text "exit here" and designed a "dinner bell" sound with features that enable the human ear to determine effortlessly the direction of the sound. A subsequent large-scale laboratory investigation (n=136) tested the new sound. Blindfold people had to find their way out of a laboratory maze with narrow intersecting corridors. Half of them (68) got the hissing sound of the previous test; the others (68) the new bell-"exit here".
Results: With the old sound 50 to 60% decided on the correct route; this was over 90% with the new sound. (50% would decide correctly without any sound.)
Conclusions: The new sound attracted people; the old sound didn't. Further improvement is probable by speaking Dutch (native language) and English in alternation. Some test participants threw in spontaneously that they failed to understand the current English text. The beacons in a coming tunnel test will therefore speak both Dutch and English.
Methods: Taking the view that disoriented people are served best with a direct verbal message we implemented the English text "exit here" and designed a "dinner bell" sound with features that enable the human ear to determine effortlessly the direction of the sound. A subsequent large-scale laboratory investigation (n=136) tested the new sound. Blindfold people had to find their way out of a laboratory maze with narrow intersecting corridors. Half of them (68) got the hissing sound of the previous test; the others (68) the new bell-"exit here".
Results: With the old sound 50 to 60% decided on the correct route; this was over 90% with the new sound. (50% would decide correctly without any sound.)
Conclusions: The new sound attracted people; the old sound didn't. Further improvement is probable by speaking Dutch (native language) and English in alternation. Some test participants threw in spontaneously that they failed to understand the current English text. The beacons in a coming tunnel test will therefore speak both Dutch and English.
TNO Identifier
12546
Publisher
TNO
Collation
13 p.
Place of publication
Soesterberg