Consideration of the Door Opening Process in Pedestrian Flow: Experiments on Door Opening Direction, Door Handle Type, and Limited Visibility

Jong-Yeong Son, Young-Hoon Bae, Young-Chan Kim, Ryun-Seok Oh, Won-Hwa Hong and Jun-Ho Choi
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Jong-Yeong Son: School of Architectural, Civil, Environmental and Energy Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea
Young-Hoon Bae: School of Architectural, Civil, Environmental and Energy Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea
Young-Chan Kim: Department of Fire and Disaster Prevention Engineering, Changshin University, Changwon 51352, Korea
Ryun-Seok Oh: Department of Architectural and Fire Protection Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan 48513, Korea
Won-Hwa Hong: School of Architectural, Civil, Environmental and Energy Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea
Jun-Ho Choi: Department of Architectural and Fire Protection Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan 48513, Korea

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 20, 1-16

Abstract: The door is a section prone to bottlenecks and is an important element in the study of pedestrian flow. Therefore, characteristics of doors (e.g., width, location, and the distance between doors) have been taken into consideration in the existing literature related to doors. According to several previous studies, it appears likely that the door opening process (DOP) influences pedestrian flow. However, the number of studies examining the DOP remains small. Therefore, to enhance understanding of pedestrian flow, we examined two door characteristics that could affect the DOP (opening direction (swing door: push or pull) and handle type (knob, lever, and panic bar)) and limited visibility. We conducted a walking experiment to take all variables (10 cases; 10 participants per case) into account. Statistical analysis was performed on the difference in movement times, and the results were as follows: (1) inclusion of the DOP affected pedestrian flow; (2) when visibility was limited, movement times with DOP inclusion increased significantly regardless of the door opening direction and handle type; (3) when the door opening direction was ‘push’, regardless of limited visibility and door handle type, movement times with DOP inclusion were significantly lower; and (4) the door handle type did not result in any significant difference in movement times with DOP inclusion. In addition, we calculated the delay time based on the experiment results, to include the DOP in pedestrian flow (push 1.96–2.88 s, pull 3.91–4.43 s; limited visibility: push 7.38–12.56 s, and pull 12.88–16.35 s). The results of this study could be used as basic data for the development of codes/regulations, engineering guidance, and egress models for doors.

Keywords: door opening process; movement time; opening direction; handle type; limited visibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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