Simulation of Evacuation Process in a Supermarket with Cellular Automata

Abstract

Abstract The evacuation process in a supermarket is simulated by a two-dimensional Cellular Automata (CA) model in this paper. In this model, the interactions among people and those between people and obstacles in forward direction are considered, and the ‘Danger-degree’ concept is introduced to solve the path select of people evacuation process. This paper studies the effect of different shelves’ orientation and personal familiarity degree of exits to evacuation time. The result shows if occupants are fewer in supermarket, shelves orientations have little influence on evacuation time; but when occupants are larger, the longitudinal shelves orientation is more appropriate for evacuation in supermarket than transverse shelves orientation. The study also found that the evacuation time reduces, the exits’ available time improve with the increase of personal familiar with exits by induction. This can provide theoretical foundation for arranging the shelves orientation in supermarket as well as drafting contingency plans of pedestrians’ induction evacuation.