Microscopic dynamics of escaping groups through an exit and a corridor

E. ROZAN; G.FRANK; I.STICCO; F. CORNES; C. O. DORSO

PHYSICA A - STATISTICAL AND THEORETICAL PHYSICS

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2022 vol. 597 p. 127271 - 127286

0378-4371

This research explores the dynamics of emergency evacuations in the presence of socialgroups. The investigation was carried out in the context of the Social Force Model (SFM).We included attractive feelings between individuals belonging to the same social group,as proposed in Ref. Frank and Dorso (2016). We focused on the escaping dynamicsthrough an emergency exit and through a corridor. We confirmed the results appearingin Ref. Frank and Dorso (2016) for a desired velocity of 4 m / s, but further extended theanalysis on the emergency exit to the range 1–8 m / s. We noticed that the presence ofgroups worsens the evacuation performance. However, very strong feelings can improvethe escaping time with respect to moderate feelings. We call this phenomenon ‘‘Closer-Is-Faster’’, in analogy to the ‘‘Faster-Is-Slower’’ effect. The presence of social groups alsoaffects the dynamics within a corridor by introducing an additional slow-down in themoving crowd.