Abstract: In order to study factors influencing emergency evacuation from an offshore drilling platform in fire, simulations were carried out of evacuation from a drilling platform in South China Sea using Fire Dynamics Simulator software. Temperature field, smoke layer height, visibility and thermal radiation effects as a function were observed. The influences of exit familiarity rate, reaction time and moving speed on the personnel evacuation were analyzed using the Evacuation Module(EVAC). Pathfinder software was used to simulate the flow rates of evacuees' through and usage of the stairways during evacuation. The results show that for evacuees in fire, the northeast stairway is affected most severely by fire and the southwestern stairway is the safest, that the moving speed, exit familiarity rate and reaction time have a greater impact on the overall evacuation efficiency, and that in the evacuation process, the southeast stairway usage is the highest, followed by the southwest stairway usage.

Key words: offshore drilling platform, smoke, emergency evacuation, fire dynamics simulator(FDS), Pathfinder software