Experiment and multi-grid modeling of evacuation from a classroom

The evacuation process of students from a classroom is investigated by both experiment and modeling. We investigate the video record of the pedestrian movement in the classroom, and find some typical characteristics of the evacuation, including variable velocity, dislocable queuing, monopolizing exit and so on. Based on the experimental observation, we improve the multi-grid model by considering the pre-movement time of each pedestrian, adopting variable velocity and using a new update procedure. With the improved multi-grid model, we simulate the evacuation process and compare the simulation results with the experimental results, and find that they agree with each other closely. In order to analyze the uncertainty of evacuation, we investigate the influences of the pre-movement time and its distribution on the evacuation. It is found that the evacuation times exhibit a (truncated) normal distribution and vary within a region of about 30% of the mean value. An interesting phenomenon is that the evacuation time of the egress experiment is close to the minimum value calculated with the model, due to the coordination among pedestrians during the experiment. The study may be useful in developing applicable egress models and understanding the basic egress behaviors. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.