Study Of The Simulation Of Evacuation Dynamics

In modern world, with the more and more accidents happening, it is frequently needed to set evacuation plans when a lot of people gather at some place in case of any emergent situations. The process of human evacuation poses a threat to the public safety. If accidents occur in the evacuation crowd, it is very likely to hinder the process of evacuation, or even cause injury or death. So, works must be done to study the evacuation dynamics. In recent years, the study of evacuation has become one of the focus of the international safety study, forming a new subject.On the one hand, unlike other study object, the behavior of crowd, especially evacuation crowd, depends greatly on the interactions among crowd members and many other factors. So, it is very difficult to formulate it. On the other hand, the number of people must be evacuated is usually very high in emergent situation. It is impossible to do experiments like that due to the great expenditure and the possibility of accidents. So, the main feasible tool can be used to study evacuation dynamics is computer simulation.Using simulation to study evacuation dynamics can be dated back to a few decades ago. In this period, a lot of simulation models and systems were built and put into use. These simulation models can be divided into two categories, macroscopic models and microscopic models. In the former ones, models are built based on the behavior of the crowd. And the interactions of the individuals are completely ignored. Because its simplicity, this kind of models requires less computational capability comparing with microscopic models, and became the main stream in the early years of the crowd study. With the developing of the computer technology, computational limit has been greatly relaxed. Microscopic model became the main stream. In this kind of models, the simulating object is individual. The behavior of the crowd is generated in the model. Because the individual is called agent in the model, this kind of models is sometimes called "simulation model based on Agent-Technology". Microscopic models can bedivided into continuous models and discrete models.Microscopic models can produce good simulation results. So, in recent years, a lot of microscopic models were built by researchers. These models differs greatly from each other. But behind all these diversities, there is something alike in all these models. In this paper, a mathematical analysis framework was built. With the help of it, the differences and identities of microscopic models can be found easily.Based on the analysis of existing microscopic models, a new evacuation simulation model was presented in this paper. Concerned the tradeoff of application and performance, this model was built by the techniques of discrete microscopic model building. With the introduction of many factors, the model can simulate evacuation dynamics under various situations. Comparing with existing models, this one is more flexible.Based on that simulation model, simulation software EvacSA was developed. In the use of the simulation of a subway station, this simulation software produced good results. With minor changes, this software can be used for the evacuation simulation of many kinds of buildings such as harbors, theatres, stadiums, skyscrapers, schools and so on. The building design can be checked and optimized with the help of simulation results. Evacuation plan can also benefit by EvacSA. This simulation tool can be used for the personal education, too.