Effects of exit obstacles on the evacuation dynamics of blind people

Xingli Li, Jie Zheng, Jiangtao Tian, Shanshan Ma and Hua Kuang
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Xingli Li: School of Safety and Emergency Management Engineering, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan 030024, P. R. China
Jie Zheng: School of Applied Science, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan 030024, P. R. China
Jiangtao Tian: School of Applied Science, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan 030024, P. R. China
Shanshan Ma: School of Applied Science, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan 030024, P. R. China
Hua Kuang: College of Physical Science and Technology, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, P. R. China

International Journal of Modern Physics C (IJMPC), 2024, vol. 35, issue 06, 1-19

Abstract: The modeling of blind people’s behavior is an important topic in pedestrian evacuation dynamics. In order to study movement characteristics of blind people in evacuation process and the effect of indoor obstacles on the evacuation efficiency of blind people, an extended cellular automata model is proposed to simulate blind people evacuation by considering the influence of obstacles. The control variable method is adopted to study the effect of indoor obstacles on the blind evacuation efficiency rule. The numerical simulation is applied to analyze the evacuation process of blind people under different setting (e.g. the location, size and other factors) of obstacles and different evacuation scenarios. The shunt effect of obstacles is discussed and the layout strategy of obstacles is optimized. The results show that the longitudinal obstacles in front of the exit can effectively play the diversion role of obstacles when the obstacle is at a certain distance from the exit, which will improve the evacuation efficiency of the blind. Furthermore, a horizontal obstacle of appropriate length can constrain the trajectory of the blind people and improve the efficiency of evacuation, but when the horizontal obstacle is too long, it will induce extra jam on both sides of the obstacle and hinder the evacuation of the blind. The finding can provide the theoretical basis for the blind people’s organization, management and the optimization of evacuation strategies during an emergency.

Keywords: Blind people; cellular automaton; obstacle; evacuation efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1142/S0129183124500694

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