Dynamic analysis of emergency evacuation in a rolling passenger ship using a two-layer social force model

Abstract

It is vital to effectively quantify the human movement parameters in rolling ships to save lives in maritime emergency and/or accidents. This study aims to develop a new two-layer social force model (2LR-SFM) to improve human evacuation efficiency in rolling ships. Firstly, the forces acting on humans are analysed in terms of physical forces, psychological adjustment, and inertial analysis, and the three-dimensional human moving process is described by a modified model. Secondly, the individual’s velocity and acceleration are calculated at each time step according to the walking direction, rolling amplitude, and rolling period. Thirdly, the accuracy of the human walking speed attenuation in 2LR-SFM simulation is verified by using the velocity data collected from real ship experiments. Finally, simulations are carried out in the dining room of a ship to reveal the human movement patterns in different rolling scenarios. The results reveal that the simulation process of 2LR-SFM satisfies the basic rules of human evacuation. With the increase of rolling amplitude, humans are more affected by the rolling motion, resulting in exponentially increased evacuation time. This study enables to simulate the evacuation process under different rolling scenarios and hence realizes a dynamic analysis for the first time in the area.