Coupling CFD fire simulation with agent-based evacuation modelling for safety performance assessment in high-density residential buildings

High-density residential buildings pose unique challenges for safe evacuation under fire emergencies due to complex spatial layouts, population clustering, and rapid hazard progression. This study develops an integrated simulation framework that couples fire dynamics with agent-based modelling to evaluate evacuation performance and occupant safety under varied conditions. Engineering-informed behavioural logic, hazard thresholds, and spatial constraints are embedded to simulate realistic, time-sensitive scenarios. The framework is validated using real fire cases from Hong Kong public housing and applied across 80 diverse scenarios varying in layout, fire origin, and response delays. Results show that distributed exits reduce the number of at-risk occupants by over one-third when delays exceed 60 s, while premature evacuation may lead to greater risk exposure due to blocked corridors. By correlating dynamic fire hazard progression with occupant evacuation and predicting specific survival windows for trapped occupants, the proposed framework facilitates entrapment-aware rescue planning during residential building fires.