Experimental and modeling study on evacuation under good and limited visibility in a supermarket

• Published in: Fire safety journal 2018-12, Vol.102, p.27-36
• Main Authors: Cao, Shuchao, Fu, Libi, Wang, Peng, Zeng, Guang, Song, Weiguo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Barriers; Behavior; Computer simulation; Evacuation; Evacuations & rescues; Floor field model; Human behavior; Pedestrian evacuation; Pedestrians; Supermarkets; Visibility
• ISSN: 0379-7112; 1873-7226
• DOI: 10.1016/j.firesaf.2018.10.003

The evacuation process from a supermarket under good and limited visibility is investigated by a group of experiments and questionnaires. The evacuations in both situations are compared to explore their differences. Some typical behaviors such as following behavior, helping behavior and finding the dependent during evacuation under limited visibility are observed from the experimental video. The reduced visibility hinders pedestrian movement and prolongs evacuation process. As a result, pedestrians need more time to evacuate from the supermarket under limited visibility. However, a similar point is that pedestrians prefer to select the closest exit and minimize their movement distances in both situations. A multi-grid model considering these typical behaviors is proposed to simulate pedestrian evacuation under both conditions and simulation results agree well with the experiment results. Finally simulations with and without obstacles inside are compared to study the effect of obstacles on evacuation time. The study is helpful to understand pedestrian behavior and develop efficient evacuation strategy to guide pedestrian evacuation under limited visibility. •Evacuation under different visibilities is studied by experiments and questionnaires.•Following, helping and finding the dependent under limited visibility are observed.•A multi-grid model considering typical behaviors of pedestrian is proposed.