Escape Dynamics in Office Buildings: Using Molecular Dynamics to Quantify the Impact of Certain Aspects of Human Behavior During Emergency Evacuation

Authored by Constantinos I Siettos, Stamatina Th Rassia

Date Published: 2010

DOI: 10.1007/s10666-009-9209-3

Sponsors: United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

Emergency evacuation of office buildings, in the event of a life-threatening situation such as a fire incident, is a function of various factors ranging from architectural to socio-behavioral ones. We show how individual-based modeling approaches such as molecular dynamics can be coupled with behavioral responses in panic situations, in order to quantify in a systematic way the impact of human familiarity to the space, during emergency evacuation. The ultimate goal is to identify certain crucial design features that can help in engineering better evacuation plans.
Tags
Pedestrian dynamics Simulation-model Cellular-automaton model Waves