The Effect of Integrating Travel Time

This contribution demonstrates the potential gain for the quality of results in a simulation of pedestrians when estimated remaining travel time is considered as a determining factor for the movement of simulated pedestrians. This is done twice: once for a force-based model and once for a cellular automata-based model. The results show that for the (degree of realism of) simulation results it is more relevant if estimated remaining travel time is considered or not than which modeling technique is chosen -- here force-based vs. cellular automata -- which normally is considered to be the most basic choice of modeling approach.Comment: preprint of Pedestrian and Evacuation 2012 conference (PED2012) contributio

Pedestrian Traffic: on the Quickest Path

When a large group of pedestrians moves around a corner, most pedestrians do not follow the shortest path, which is to stay as close as possible to the inner wall, but try to minimize the travel time. For this they accept to move on a longer path with some distance to the corner, to avoid large densities and by this succeed in maintaining a comparatively high speed. In many models of pedestrian dynamics the basic rule of motion is often either "move as far as possible toward the destination" or - reformulated - "of all coordinates accessible in this time step move to the one with the smallest distance to the destination". Atop of this rule modifications are placed to make the motion more realistic. These modifications usually focus on local behavior and neglect long-ranged effects. Compared to real pedestrians this leads to agents in a simulation valuing the shortest path a lot better than the quickest. So, in a situation as the movement of a large crowd around a corner, one needs an additional element in a model of pedestrian dynamics that makes the agents deviate from the rule of the shortest path. In this work it is shown, how this can be achieved by using a flood fill dynamic potential field method, where during the filling process the value of a field cell is not increased by 1, but by a larger value, if it is occupied by an agent. This idea may be an obvious one, however, the tricky part - and therefore in a strict sense the contribution of this work - is a) to minimize unrealistic artifacts, as naive flood fill metrics deviate considerably from the Euclidean metric and in this respect yield large errors, b) do this with limited computational effort, and c) keep agents' movement at very low densities unaltered

Modeling the desired direction in a force-based model for pedestrian dynamics

We introduce an enhanced model based on the generalized centrifugal force model. Furthermore, the desired direction of pedestrians is investigated. A new approach leaning on the well-known concept of static and dynamic floor-fields in cellular automata is presented. Numerical results of the model are presented and compared with empirical data.Comment: 14 pages 11 figures, submitted to TGF'1

Zircon dissolution in a ductile shear zone, Monte Rosa granite gneiss, northern Italy

The sizes, distributions and shapes of zircon grains within variably deformed granite gneiss from the western Alps have been studied. Zircon shows numerous indicators of a metamorphic response in both the host gneiss and a 5 cm wide continuous ductile shear zone, within which the zircon grain sizes range from <1 µm to >50 µm. However, the very fine grain sizes are virtually absent from grain boundaries. Within this zone, zircons consistently have more rounded and embayed margins, which are interpreted as evidence of dissolution in response to fluid influx during shearing. Zircons are preferentially located near metamorphic muscovite in both the host gneiss and the shear zone and tend to show the poorest crystal shape, indicating that fluids linked to the formation and presence of muscovite may enhance both the crystallization of zircon and its subsequent dissolution. Larger zircon crystals typically show a brittle response to deformation when adjacent to phyllosilicates, with fractures consistently perpendicular to the (001) mica cleavage. The variety of metamorphic behaviour observed for zircon indicates that it may be highly reactive in sub-solidus mid-crustal metamorphic environments

Quickest Paths in Simulations of Pedestrians

This contribution proposes a method to make agents in a microscopic simulation of pedestrian traffic walk approximately along a path of estimated minimal remaining travel time to their destination. Usually models of pedestrian dynamics are (implicitly) built on the assumption that pedestrians walk along the shortest path. Model elements formulated to make pedestrians locally avoid collisions and intrusion into personal space do not produce motion on quickest paths. Therefore a special model element is needed, if one wants to model and simulate pedestrians for whom travel time matters most (e.g. travelers in a station hall who are late for a train). Here such a model element is proposed, discussed and used within the Social Force Model.Comment: revised version submitte

Particle production and equilibrium properties within a new hadron transport approach for heavy-ion collisions

The microscopic description of heavy-ion reactions at low beam energies is achieved within hadronic transport approaches. In this article a new approach SMASH (Simulating Many Accelerated Strongly-interacting Hadrons) is introduced and applied to study the production of non-strange particles in heavy-ion reactions at $E_{\rm kin}=0.4-2A$ GeV. First, the model is described including details about the collision criterion, the initial conditions and the resonance formation and decays. To validate the approach, equilibrium properties such as detailed balance are presented and the results are compared to experimental data for elementary cross sections. Finally results for pion and proton production in C+C and Au+Au collisions is confronted with HADES and FOPI data. Predictions for particle production in $\pi+A$ collisions are made.Comment: 30 pages, 30 figures, replaced with published version; only minor change