Objectives  The aircraft carrier escape and evacuation process is complex and difficult to quantify.

  Methods  To solve this problem, this paper develops an intelligent multi-purpose intelligent agent (MUPI) evacuation behavior model and simulates the evacuation process of aircraft carrier Saratoga on EXODUS, and the simulation results are verified by grey relational analysis.

  Results  The following conclusions are obtained:escape time increases with the decrease of exit width when the exit width is less than 1 m; the influence of exit width on escape time is relatively large; when the exit width is greater than 2 m, changing the exit width has less effect on escape time; increasing the exit width has a better effect on average escape time than increasing the number of exits; for the three indicators of walking distance, distance travelled and average time taken, stair width has a greater effect than gate width or number of lifeboats.

  Conclusions  The research findings of this paper can provide references for the layout design of domestic aircraft carriers.