Abstract
This paper presents an extended cell transmission model to simulate an emergency evacuation of crowd in a supermarket scenario. The supermarket scenario with a daily shopping, an emergency exit and multiple parallel shelves is discretized into a set of regular hexagonal cells. First, we verify the validity of the model by comparing the results of the model with actual data obtained from a reported pedestrian evacuation experiment. To improve the realism of the simulation, we then include three characteristics of human behavior, the unadventurous effect, inertial effect, and panic psychology, in the model as parameters and apply the extended model to the supermarket scenario. By analyzing the pedestrian density distribution, fundamental diagrams, route choice, and total evacuation time, we determine that the parameters have a significant influence on the evacuation process. By establishing a minimization model, we confirm that the total evacuation time is the least when the pedestrians’ familiarity with the emergency exit is close to the ratio of the width of the emergency exit to the total width of the two exits. Moreover, by comparing two different methods to choose exits, we can conclude that the approach, by which all pedestrians choose the closer exit, is not always the most efficient evacuation strategy. This study is conducive to devise evacuation plans and design exit layouts in facilities similar to supermarkets.
Highlights
In large event venues, people participate in activities by walking
(ii) Inertial effect: Because pedestrians prefer to maintain inertia rather than stop what they are doing, once they choose an exit as their target exit, they typically continue to move in the same direction without changing routes during the process in general
The supermarket scenario included multiple parallel shelves, which can be considered as internal obstacles, a daily shopping exit, and an emergency exit
Summary
People participate in activities by walking. The facilities should address the requirements of walking. In the study of pedestrian evacuation, different, important characteristics of human behavior are studied to improve the realism of the simulations, such as the suitable position of an exit, effects of walls, and forces among the pedestrians. Cao et al [39] proposed an extended multigrid model to study fire evacuation in a two-exit room and investigated the exit selection based on random utility theory. Compared to the macroscopic pedestrian models, our model is easier to describe the characteristics of human behavior and provide more detailed information in the process of evacuation. We consider three characteristics of human behavior, unadventurous effect, inertial effect, and panic psychology in the CTM and apply the extended model to simulate crowd emergency evacuation in a supermarket scenario. It is possible they would be unable to choose a reasonable route to exit, and would rather choose another location at random
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