Dynamics of pedestrians in regions with no visibility— A lattice model without exclusion

Emilio N.M. Cirillo and Adrian Muntean

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2013, vol. 392, issue 17, 3578-3588

Abstract: We investigate the motion of pedestrians through obscure corridors where the lack of visibility (due to smoke, fog, darkness, etc.) hides the precise position of the exits. We focus our attention on a set of basic mechanisms, which we assume to be governing the dynamics at the individual level. Using a lattice model, we explore the effects of non-exclusion on the overall exit flux (evacuation rate). More precisely, we study the effect of the buddying threshold (of no-exclusion per site) on the dynamics of the crowd and investigate to which extent our model confirms the following pattern revealed by investigations on real emergencies: If the evacuees tend to cooperate and act altruistically, then their collective action tends to favor the occurrence of disasters. The research reported here opens many fundamental questions and should be seen therefore as a preliminary investigation of the very complex behavior of the people and their motion in dark regions.

Keywords: Crowd dynamics; Lattice models; Pedestrians evacuation; Motion in regions with no visibility; Non-exclusion processes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:392:y:2013:i:17:p:3578-3588

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2013.04.029

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