Characteristics of pedestrian evacuation from narrow seated area considering exit failure: experimental and simulation results

Narrow seated spaces with multiple exits are prevalent structures in public buildings, underscoring the paramount importance of facilitating swift evacuation in such constrained environments. In this study, we first conducted evacuation experiments in a realistic narrow seated area. By manipulating different availability conditions for two exits located at the ends of the long aisle, we studied the effects of unpredictable exit failures, specifically, how the exit switch and explicit guidance influence the evacuation process. The movement characteristics are explored in several aspects, such as pre-evacuation time, aisle conflicts, speed, distance headway, evacuation time, and time lapse. We found that once people have encountered the exit failure condition, they would demonstrate enhanced preparedness in subsequent trials, leading to expedited exit switches. With explicit guidance, people would be less hesitant and move faster in the main aisle. The fine-grid cellular automata model is extended based on the experimental observations to verify its feasibility in simulating this process. Conflict resolution and turning behavior are incorporated for a more nuanced description. The effects of the exit switch are parameterized through the informed probability and the speed reduction.