Obstacles in front of doors for pedestrian buildings evacuation. Recruting MSCA Postdoctoral fellow candidate

Research project description

The placement of obstacles in front of doors is believed to be an effective strategy to increase the flow of pedestrians, hence improving the evacuation process. Since it was first suggested, this counter-intuitive feature is considered a hallmark of pedestrian flows through bottlenecks. Our experimental findings also reveal an unnoticed phenomenon in relation with the crowd movement in front of the exit: in competitive evacuations, an obstacle attenuates the development of collective transversal rushes, which are hazardous as they might cause falls.

We are looking for a motivated candidate who wish to add her/his efforts to the background of the Universidad de Navarra researchers in this area, to achieve new solutions to be applied into buildings.

Scientific keywords

Integration, architecture, engineering, fire safety, building services

Hosting Group

• The work team represented by the César Martín-Gómez has been working for years on projects that involve the integration of building services and energy systems in complex architectonical cases. Building services here involve fire safety, water management, electricity, data networks, HVAC and renewable energies.
• These research works include architecture and urbanism, history and biology, learning and complex buildings. It is not a mess but a puzzle where the keyword is integration.
• The UNESCO research lines are: 241109 - Regulation of human temperature; 330500 - Construction technology; 330503 - Large buildings and skyscrapers; 330506 - Civil engineering; 330517 - Industrial and commercial buildings; 330537 - Urban planning; 330800 - Environmental engineering and technology; 3322 - Energy technology; 332900 - Urban planning; 550601 - History of architecture; 550624 - History of technology; 580100 - Educational theory and methods.
• Since 2009, the team has participated in 14 research projects: 5 private, 5 regional, 3 national and 1 European, with an income of over 1 million euros.
• The activity of the team has allowed the publication of more than 43 articles in indexed journals, 38 books or book chapters, and 69 collaborations in Congresses.

Highlighted Publications

1. “Adiabatic box designed to minimize the thermal bridge of a thermoelectrical system”. Informes de la Construcción Vol. 73, 562, e386 abril-junio 2021 ISSN-L: 0020-0883 César Martín-Gómez, Kattalin Del Valle de Lersundi, Amaia Zuazua Ros, Marina Vidaurre-Arbizu, José Antonio Sacristán-Fernández, María Ibañez-Puy. https://doi.org/10.3989/ic.74303 Published on-line: 10/06/2021
2.  “From the leather industry to building sector: Exploration of potential applications of discarded solid wastes”. Journal of Cleaner Production 291 (2021) 125960, pp.1-12. ISSN: 0959-6526. Marina Vidaurre-Arbizu, Silvia Perez-Bou, Amaia Zuazua-Ros, Cesar Martín-Gomez. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.125960
3.  “Performance and feasibility assessment of a hybrid cooling system for office buildings based on heat dissipation panels”. Energy (2020) 117975, pp.1-14. ISSN: 0360-5442. Amaia Zuazua-Ros, Juan Carlos Ramos, César Martín-Gomez, Tomas Gomez-Acebo, Evyatar Erell. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2020.117975
4. “Potential strategies offered by animals to implement in buildings׳ energy performance: Theory and practice”. Frontiers of Architectural Research (2019) Volume 8, Issue 1, pp.17-31. ISSN 2095-2635. César Martín-Gómez. Amaia Zuazua-Ros. Javier Bermejo-Busto. Enrique Baquero. Rafael Miranda. Cristina Sanz. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2018.12.002
5. “Investigation of the thermoelectric potential for heating, cooling and ventilation in buildings: Characterization options and applications”. Renewable Energy 131 (2019) 229-239. ISSN: 0960-1481. Amaia Zuazua-Ros, César Martín-Gómez*, Elia Ibañez-Puy, Marina Vidaurre-Arbizu, Yaniv Gelbstein. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2018.07.027
6. “Design, assembly and energy performance of a ventilated active thermoelectric envelope module for heating”. Energy and Buildings 176 (2018) 371–379. Amaia Zuazua-Ros, César Martín-Gómez*, Elia Ibáñez-Puy, Marina Vidaurre-Arbizu, María Ibáñez-Puy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.07.062
7.  “Performance simulation of heat recovery ventilator cores in cascade connection”. Energy and Buildings 134 (2017) 25–36. ISSN 0378-7788. Javier Bermejo-Busto, César Martín-Gómez, Amaia Zuazua-Ros, Enrique Baquero, Rafael Miranda. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.11.014
8. “Bio-inspired heat dissipation system integrated in buildings: development and applications”. Energy Procedia, 111, 2016, Pages 51-60, ISSN: 1876-6102. 8th Sustainability in Energy and Buildings, SEB-16 Turin, Italy, 11-13 September 2016. Amaia Zuazua-Ros, César Martín-Gómez, Juan Carlos Ramos, Tomás Gómez- Acebo. DOI 10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.007
9. “Flow of pedestrians through narrow doors with different competitiveness”. Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment, Volume 2016, April 2016, pp.1-16. ISSN: 1742-5468. A Garcimartín, D R Parisi, J M Pastor, C Martín-Gómez, I Zuriguel. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1742-5468/2016/04/043402
10. “Thermal energy performance in working-spaces from biomorphic models: The tuna case in an office building”. Building Simulation, June 2016, Volume 9, Issue 3, pp 347–357. ISSN 1996-3599. Amaia Zuazua-Ros, César Martín-Gómez, Javier Bermejo-Busto, Marina Vidaurre-Arbizu, Enrique Baquero, Rafael Miranda. DOI 10.1007/s12273-016-0273-8 <http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12273-016-0273-8&gt;
11. "Banco de Bilbao Headquarters: First Low-Energy Building in Spain?". Journal of Green Building, V6 N4, 2011, p.37-44. ISSN 1552-6100. https://doi.org/10.3992/jgb.6.4.37

Applicant profiles

• Architecture and/or Engineer PhD.
• No more than 8 years full-time equivalent research experience (career breaks and leaves will not count towards this experience).
• The candidate must not have lived or performed his/her main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the deadline for submission of proposals (13/09/2023).

Skills/Qualifications

• Ability to work into multidisciplinary teams.

The fellowship has the potential for a postdoctoral scientist:

• Disruptive and out-of-the-box research projects.
• Research at Universidad de Navarra, one of the top rated universities in Spain (Number 1 in employability) in a real multidisciplinary ecosystem.

Documents to provide

CV and letter of motivation. Include a concept note of the research proposal (up to 1 page).