279 research outputs found

    Membranes for spontaneous separation of pedestrian counter flows

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    Designing efficient traffic lanes for pedestrians is a critical aspect of urban planning as walking remains the most common form of mobility among the increasingly diverse methods of transportation. Herein, we investigate pedestrian counter flows in a straight corridor, in which two groups of people are walking in opposite directions. We demonstrate, using a molecular dynamics approach applying the social force model, that a simple array of obstacles improves flow rates by producing flow separations even in crowded situations. We also report on a developed model describing the separation behavior that regards an array of obstacles as a membrane and induces spontaneous separation of pedestrians groups. When appropriately designed, those obstacles are fully capable of controlling the filtering direction so that pedestrians tend to keep moving to their left (or right) spontaneously. These results have the potential to provide useful guidelines for industrial designs aimed at improving ubiquitous human mobility.Comment: Manuscript accepted for publication in Europhysics Letter

    Modelling the Selection of Waiting Areas on Subway Platforms Based on the Bacterial Chemotaxis Algorithm

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    Based on the bacterial chemotaxis algorithm, a new waiting-area selection model (WASM) is proposed that predicts well the pedestrian distribution in subway waiting areas. WASM regards passengers waiting on a subway platform as two-dimensional points and adopts an essential rejection factor to determine the target waiting area. Based on WASM, three experiments were carried out to explore how passenger volume, waiting-area capacity, and staircase position affect the number and distribution of waiting passengers. The experimental results show the following. 1) Regardless of the passenger flow, passengers prefer waiting areas that are between the stairs. 2) Setting proper capacity limits on waiting areas can help to improve subway transportation efficiency when passenger flow is relatively high. 3) The experimental results show that the closer the staircases, the more passengers are left stranded on the platform

    Division of Research and Economic Development Annual Report for FY2004

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    Annual report for the Division of Research and Economic Development of the University of Rhode Island for the year 2003-2004. Includes statistics of project proposals, expenditures, URI Foundation Awards, previous annual report summaries and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments

    An integration of enhanced social force and crowd control models for high-density crowd simulation

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    Social force model is one of the well-known approaches that can successfully simulate pedestrians’ movements realistically. However, it is not suitable to simulate high-density crowd movement realistically due to the model having only three basic crowd characteristics which are goal, attraction, and repulsion. Therefore, it does not satisfy the high-density crowd condition which is complex yet unique, due to its capacity, density, and various demographic backgrounds of the agents. Thus, this research proposes a model that improves the social force model by introducing four new characteristics which are gender, walking speed, intention outlook, and grouping to make simulations more realistic. Besides, the high-density crowd introduces irregular behaviours in the crowd flow, which is stopping motion within the crowd. To handle these scenarios, another model has been proposed that controls each agent with two different states: walking and stopping. Furthermore, the stopping behaviour was categorized into a slow stop and sudden stop. Both of these proposed models were integrated to form a high-density crowd simulation framework. The framework has been validated by using the comparison method and fundamental diagram method. Based on the simulation of 45,000 agents, it shows that the proposed framework has a more accurate average walking speed (0.36 m/s) compared to the conventional social force model (0.61 m/s). Both of these results are compared to the real-world data which is 0.3267 m/s. The findings of this research will contribute to the simulation activities of pedestrians in a highly dense population

    Simulation of evacuation in an inclined passenger vessel based on an improved social force model

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    Passenger vessels often present different heeling and/or trim angles during and after accidents, while recognising it as the main factor affecting pedestrian movement during an emergency evacuation process, there is difficulty to reproduce the evacuation activities on ships due to cost constrains and safety concerns in relevant studies. To fill the research gap, an improved social force model (SFM) incorporating both inclining and self-adjusting forces of pedestrians into the basic SFM model was constructed to simulate the pedestrian dynamics under different ship trim and heeling circumstances. The improved SFM also includes a reduction law of pedestrian speed at different heeling and/or trim angles and adds a calculation of the reduction factor in each time step. It enables the simulation of the pedestrian movement process on inclined vessels accurately. The simulation results show that when the inclination angle is less than 20°, the impact of both heeling and/or trim on an individual's walking speed and evacuation time are weaker than the one with an angle exceeding 20°. When passengers walk along the keel line on an inclined ship, the impact of heeling on speed attenuation is more significant than the one of trim. The overall evacuation time is extended with the increasing number of evacuees. The flow rate at the exit reaches the maximum when the number of evacuees is 100, and the average evacuation rate is 2.01 persons/s. The findings provide useful insights on crowd management in the process of passenger vessel evacuation under an inclined state

    The Effects of Carry-on Baggage on Aircraft Evacuation Efficiency

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    The most frequent obstacle of an aircraft evacuation is the passengers carrying baggage while evacuating. Passengers who insist on taking their carry-on baggage during an emergency evacuation not only slow down the evacuation process but also act as a significant risk to the safety of other passengers. This study investigated the factors that affect passengers’ behavioral intention to evacuate with carry-on baggage and the effects of evacuating with carry-on baggage on the total evacuation time. Overall, two studies were conducted to provide an outline of the factors that affect and affected by carry-on baggage. Study 1 used an agent-based model, AnyLogic, to simulate the aircraft evacuation model of an A380. The model was validated, and a two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was conducted to examine the effects of the percentage of passengers evacuating with carry-on baggage and exit selection choices on the total evacuation time. The simulation results suggested that the mean evacuation time for 0% was significantly lower than 50% and 80%. The mean evacuation time for the shortest queue choice was also lower than the closest exit choice. Study 2 used an expanded theory of planned behavior (TPB) to determine the factors that affect passengers’ intentions to evacuate with carry-on baggage. The total sample size was 281 after data cleaning. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation model (SEM) were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that attitude was the significant determinant of passengers’ intention to evacuate with carryon baggage. The factor of ‘perceived risk’ was not supported, but the results showed that the opposite effect of the hypothesis was significant. The results of this study fill a gap in the research regarding passengers’ behavior of evacuating with carry-on baggage. Potential applications of this study will also help the federal regulations, airlines, and aircraft manufacturers by providing a better understanding of carry-on baggage at aircraft emergency

    H2020: PERICLES_Deliverable number: D5.3_Integration and coordination of Cultural heritage policies within ICZM and MSP

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    Executive Summary Historically cultural heritage management has not been integrated in coastal policies. Some examples from Southern European countries are available, but usually natural heritage has been the main concern for integrated policies. An analysis based on policies, legislation, scientific reports and academic papers show that cultural heritage has penetrated with difficulties integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) strategies implemented in the PERICLES countries. However, the compulsory requirement of the EU Directive on Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) has accelerated the inclusivity of cultural policies and actors’ engagement within marine (and in some cases) coastal plans. This shows the importance of spatial planning that offers a perspective that can be exported to heritage from the more traditional implementation designed to manage cities, ecosystems and landscapes, filling the gap left by ICZM that rarely has acknowledged heritage issues to any significant extent. An investigation on the integration of cultural heritage (CH) management within ICZM and MSP has been carried out by a checklist of indicators piloted in four PERICLES countries (Northern Ireland, Portugal, Denmark and Scotland). From the pilot test, it is evident how the current CH management reflects a broad perspective and is supported by the implementation of a series of tools (such as the environmental and strategic impact assessment) that facilitate the integration with other policies. However, elements of an integrated strategy based on adaptive management and involving concerned parties are less considered. Moreover, the lack of support and coordination at vertical and horizontal scales by public bodies and of mechanisms that facilitate the exchange of information remains quite relevant. The integration of the literature review and the pilot test results shows that planning and management of CH are taking place in coastal zone and that a framework for considering CH into ICZM strategies is emerging. However, several approaches required by an ICZM governance are not in place. The partial coordination between government bodies, formal partnerships or other mechanisms facilitating stakeholders’ interventions and community voice are currently limiting the possibility of a transition to an participatory approach. This result is backed-up by the analysis of policy formation reported in the PERICLES Deliverable D5.1 that suggests how across the PERICLES regions policy is led by government by a top-down strategy. The policy formation analysis reported in the PERICLES Deliverable D5.1 evidences a shift towards more participatory and increasingly deliberative approaches in some countries like Northern Ireland, with extensive consultations, discussion documents, online forums and on-going stakeholder discourse encouraging partnerships and participatory processes. The latter approaches are considered necessary by PERICLES to guarantee a shift from ‘government’ to ‘governance’ and underpin an effective multi-actor framework for cultural heritage in key policy and planning arenas

    A quantitative study of the factors influencing human evacuation from ships

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    Due to the constraints of various factors influencing human evacuation on board, it remains a challenging problem to accurately quantify the impact of these factors on the evacuation process. To analyse the multiple influential factors of human evacuation from ships, a specific framework based on orthogonal experiments is proposed in this paper to comprehensively investigate the impact of multiple factors on the evacuation time and the efficiency of the evacuation process. Heeling angles, unavailable stairs, and priorities of evacuees are identified as influential factors according to the characteristics of human evacuation from ships. The analysis results show that the heeling angle has a very significant effect on both evacuation time and efficiencies, and the efficiencies decrease as the heeling angle increases. Unavailable stairs also have a significant effect on evacuation results, the magnitude of which depends on the number of stairs nearby. While the effect of priorities of evacuees on evacuation results is relatively less important, it can be found that priority evacuation of pedestrians with impaired mobility will aid to achieve optimal evacuation results. In conclusion, the findings of this study can help managers quickly develop effective evacuation strategies in emergencies to further improve the safe operation of passenger ships

    Finding the Limits of the Limes

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    This open access book demonstrates the application of simulation modelling and network analysis techniques in the field of Roman studies. It summarizes and discusses the results of a 5-year research project carried out by the editors that aimed to apply spatial dynamical modelling to reconstruct and understand the socio-economic development of the Dutch part of the Roman frontier (limes) zone, in particular the agrarian economy and the related development of settlement patterns and transport networks in the area. The project papers are accompanied by invited chapters presenting case studies and reflections from other parts of the Roman Empire focusing on the themes of subsistence economy, demography, transport and mobility, and socio-economic networks in the Roman period. The book shows the added value of state-of-the-art computer modelling techniques and bridges computational and conventional approaches. Topics that will be of particular interest to archaeologists are the question of (forced) surplus production, the demographic and economic effects of the Roman occupation on the local population, and the structuring of transport networks and settlement patterns. For modellers, issues of sensitivity analysis and validation of modelling results are specifically addressed. This book will appeal to students and researchers working in the computational humanities and social sciences, in particular, archaeology and ancient history
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