Estimating Model Parameters for Bottlenecks in Evacuation Conditions

Emergency doors may be bottlenecks in the evacuation of a building. To assess and improve ways in which bottlenecks are used during evacuation conditions, knowledge regarding the microscopic and macroscopic phenomena at bottlenecks is required. Using data from laboratory experiments, parameters have been estimated using the microscopic simulation tool Nomad. The conclusion is that the pedestrian behavior shown upstream of bottlenecks in evacuation conditions is different from normal walking behavior. In the latter, especially in higher densities, pedestrians look for gaps which they can use to overtake other pedestrians when they have a higher free speed. In the experiments described here, pedestrians seem to have determined a path leading towards the door (the bottleneck), along which they only progress slowly, but where they stick to rather consistently. Overall, we could conclude that both types of behavior cannot be covered with a similar model type, but a multiregime model seems to be more appropriate, in which situations with low and high densities can be distinguished and dedicated models can be applied in the specific situations (regimes).