China Safety Science Journal ›› 2022, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (9): 111-117.doi: 10.16265/j.cnki.issn1003-3033.2022.09.2675

• Public safety • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Pedestrian evacuation model considering panic and wall-following guidance

WANG Guanning1,2(), CHEN Tao1, ZHENG Huijie1, JIANG Wenyu1   

  1. 1 Institute of Public Safety Research, Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
    2 Hefei Institute for Public Safety Research of Tsinghua University, Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Human Safety, Hefei Anhui 230601, China
  • Received:2022-03-12 Revised:2022-07-15 Online:2022-10-19 Published:2023-03-28

Abstract:

In order to investigate the guidance effect on evacuation under a limited visibility environment, an extended cellular automaton model was put forward to study the panic evacuation behavior and the influence of wall-following guidance on evacuation. First, a dynamical model of panic evacuation was established, considering wall-following guidance. Second, the dynamic process of crowd evacuation in the presence of a hazard source was simulated when a rescuer adopted the wall-following strategy. Finally, the influence of pedestrian panic degree and hazard position scheme on evacuation was analyzed. The simulation results show that the higher the degree of panic, the more sensitive pedestrians are to the hazard, and the less able to rationally search for exits, leading to blindly following and gathering in corners. The guidance of rescuers can effectively curb the spread of panic, ease the crowd's panic, and improve evacuation efficiency. When the hazard is closer to the exit, the panic will have a greater impact, and the evacuation time will be longer. However, the guidance of rescuers can significantly improve evacuation efficiency, and especially when the hazard is closer to the safety exit, the rescuer guidance efficiency is even more remarkable. Under the limited visibility circumstance, with the influence of panic, pedestrians are more inclined to evacuate along the wall. Unsafe behaviors appear, such as blindly following and gathering in corners. The "Wall-following" guidance promotes rational evacuation behaviors and significantly improves evacuation efficiency.

Key words: panic, wall-following guidance, pedestrian evacuation, hazard, cellular automata