Experimental study of single-file pedestrian movement with height constraints

Abstract

In the case of a fire, the presence of smoke sometimes makes people bend over and thus prevents them from walking upright. This feature of pedestrian movement in this situation is different from normal walking and affects the dynamics of an evacuation. However, the effect of such kind of motion on pedestrian traffic has not been systematically studied. Therefore, this paper studies the characteristics of pedestrian motion when different heights are available through a series of single-file experiments. In total, five experimental scenarios with available heights of 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, and 2.0 m were designed. For each pedestrian in the experiments, their trajectories were extracted to calculate the features of the fundamental diagram. Based on the speed feature, three different states are found in the space–time diagram and the speed distributions are subject to Gaussian distribution in different available heights. However, from the relationship between spatial headway and speed, only two regimes are found, i.e., a free state and a strongly constrained regime, which is consistent with previous research. Finally, pedestrian speeds present two different trends at high densities in relation to speed and density. The present research provides not only fundamental data of pedestrian movement with height constraints, but also a basis for understanding the complex features of pedestrian movement in emergency situations.