Small-grid analysis of discrete model for evacuation from a hall

In this paper, small-grid analysis of discrete model is described, and simulation that some walkers leave a hall is carried out to check the effects of different desired walk velocities with the same walk time at a time step, and different numbers of small grid at a time step with the same desired walk velocity, on the evacuation time. The simulation results show that small-grid analysis have reproduced some typical phenomena of evacuation, including jam, block and faster-is-slower, etc. as good as the continuum model, i.e., the social force model, but with high simulation efficiency. In addition, the power-law distribution of evacuation flow duration and block duration with the different desired walk velocities is found. The block duration with different numbers of small grid at a time step also takes on power-law characteristics, only their intercepts in log-log coordinates are different. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.