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In this paper, a dynamic entry pedestrian flow assignment problem is investigated. The problem concerns a scenario, i.e. a number of pedestrians enter a public place with multiple entrances and internal obstacles, and then get to their destinations in the public place. The problem aims at determining the access entrance, moving route, and destination position choice of pedestrians so as to minimize the total entry time of all pedestrians. A mesoscopic model is developed to formulate the dynamic entry process of pedestrians in the scenario and a heuristic algorithm is proposed to solve the dynamic entry pedestrian flow assignment problem. Moreover, a set of numerical investigations are provided to demonstrate the applications of the model and the effectiveness of the algorithm, especially to a case with a larger number of entry pedestrians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suitable information of routes and exits can help guide evacuees to approach the expected destinations more efficiently in case of emergencies, such as fire accidents, terrorist attacks and power failures. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the dynamics of two patterns of guided crowd evacuation. One is source-guided crowd evacuation, and the other is leader-guided crowd evacuation. In source-guided crowd evacuation, sources located in fixed positions diffuse information to evacuees around them in a certain form such as light, sound and smell. However, in the leader-guided crowd evacuation, leaders convey information to evacuees they encounter along their trajectories by means of word-of-mouth communication. First, considering wall-following, herding, and inertia behaviors, a mesoscopic model is established to formulate the movement of uninformed pedestrians without information guidance. Then, considering information guidance, a set of movement rules are constructed to describe the evolution dynamics of crowds comprising uninformed and informed pedestrians. Further, the implementation of the simulation models reveals the subtle effects of the initial position of information sources, the propagation velocity of information sources, and the initial distribution of leaders on the evacuation efficiency of crowds. This study gives new insights into the design of information guidance systems in pedestrian walking facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we conducted a series of experiments to investigate child behavior during self-evacuation and guided evacuation under non-emergency and emergency situations. The properties of child flow dynamics are obtained through analysis of the experimental video recordings. It is found that under a non-emergency situation, the evacuation processes are orderly, and group and waiting behavior can be observed. Under an emergency situation, the evacuation processes become disorder, and running and pushing behaviors can be observed. Our analyses showed that the exit use is imbalanced under an emergency situation and that the guidance of teachers plays a positive role in the exit choice of children during an emergency evacuation process. The emergency degree has significant effects on the exit choice of children in self-evacuation. Our results also showed that the average evacuation time of children, flow rate, and average headway of the exit are less affected by the guidance of teachers and more affected by the emergency degree. The guidance of teachers affects some children's individual evacuation time. The findings can assist in improvements in the daily management and evacuation strategies for children, as well as the development and validation of child simulation models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]