Exits choice based on cellular automaton model for pedestrians' evacuation

Abstract

In order to study the evacuation characteristics under complex building structure, an emergency evacuation model considering multi-exits was established based on cellular automaton in this paper, The distance from pedestrian location to the exit and pedestrians' density near exit were considered in the model, meanwhile, the exit door size is a key factor for exit choice during escaping. We simulated pedestrians' evacuation from crowded exit door moving to open area using the model; we also studied the number of pedestrians and layout of exit influencing on evacuation time. Results show that the evacuation time increases with the density, and exits distribution affects the effective usage of exits and the evacuation efficiency. Evacuation time decreases with the exits separation width.