Influence of selsh and polite behaviours on a pedestrian evacuation through a narrow exit: A quantitative characterisation

A. NICOLAS; S. BOUZAT; M. N. KUPERMAN

Conferencia; 8th International Conference Pedestrian and Evacuation dynamics; 2016

We study the influence of selsh vs. polite behaviours on the dynamics of a pedestrian evacuation through a narrow exit. To this end, experiments involving about 80 participants with distinct prescribed behaviours are performed; reinjection of participants into the setup allowed us to improve the statistics. Notwithstanding the fluctuations in the instantaneous flow rate, we find that a stationary regime is almost immediately reached. The average flow rate increases monotonically with the fraction cs of vying (selsh) pedestrians, which corresponds to a faster-is-faster effect in our experimental conditions; it is also positively correlated with the average density of pedestrians in front of the door, up to nearly close-packing. At large cs; the flow displays marked intermittency, with bursts of quasi simultaneous escapes.In addition to these ndings, we wonder whether the effect of cooperation is specific to systems of intelligent beings, or whether it can be reproduced by a purely mechanical surrogate. To this purpose, we consider a bidimensional granular flow through an orifice in which some grains are madecooperative by repulsive magnetic interactions which impede their mutual collisions.