Modeling human domino process based on interactions among individuals for understanding crowd disasters

Abstract

Evidence suggests that a human domino effect may be formed based on microscopic human behaviors during interactions among individuals in a dense crowd and probably induces crowd disasters. We established a human domino model to simulate such a domino process. With respect to a high-density crowd, the initial impulse tended to keep growing until the boundary, which perhaps resulted in crowd disasters. We can also use the repeatability of the domino process to predict the impulse exerted on individuals, which provides a prediction of crowd disasters. In addition, hand contact is conducive to maintaining the balance of the individual, but significantly intensifies the impulse in the entire process and causes even greater risk. The effect of the fixed boundary was significant especially in the case of a very high-density crowd, resulting in the violent crushing on individuals.