Research of Arching Phenomenon in Crowd Evacuation Simulation Based on the Arch Effect

Abstract

Arch Effect is a universal natural phenomenon caused by the non-homogeneous displacement of the media. Likely, the pedestrians in a crowd evacuation simulation, according to the social force model, would also form an arch near the exit in a short time. The resulting arch may decrease evacuation efficiency and lead to extremely dangerous situations. In this paper, inspired by the similarity between the natural Arch Effect and pedestrians’ evacuation behaviors, a hypothesis is proposed that the arching phenomenon in crowd evacuation simulations can be controlled by applying the theory of the natural Arch Effect. To test this hypothesis, two steps have been conducted. First, the obstacles in the scene are treated as the arch feet. By setting obstacles at appropriate positions, the arch is formed at a position more distant from the exit. The outer-arch can help to avoid extremely dangerous situations and improve evacuation efficiency. Second, a modified interval equation based on the Arch Effect is proposed to calculate the proper interval of the obstacles to be set in the scene. With the pressure in the crowd and the size of obstacles considered, the equation aims to provide the optimal interval value for pedestrian evacuation. The results of the experiments illustrate that it is effective to analyze and control the arching phenomenon in crowd evacuation simulations by applying the theory of the Arch Effect.