Estimating contact forces and pressure in a dense crowd: Microscopic and macroscopic models

•Estimation of the contact forces generated in a dense crowd from both microscopic and macroscopic points of view.•Rigorously define and model contact forces through the non-smooth contact dynamics theory.•The choice of the pedestrian’s shape influences the contact forces in the microscopic representation.•Model the crowd as a deformable solid and calculate the contact forces using the stress tensor.•Critical study and overview on contact force calculation techniques and comparison with the developed approaches.