Simulation of pedestrians passing through bottlenecks based on generalized centrifugal force model.

Understanding on the movement characteristics of pedestrians is important to improve their safety levels. Generalized centrifugal force model is selected to simulate the pedestrians passing through bottlenecks. The bottleneck width and the number of pedestrians are considered to measure their impact on the traffic efficiency on the bottleneck. Linear relation between flow and bottleneck width is observed and the number of pedestrians show no significant impact on the flow. With the increasing bottleneck width, the density in the front of the bottleneck entrance decreases. More pedestrians result into higher density in the measurement area. The findings can help researchers have a deeper understanding on the pedestrians’ movement and bring some guidance to design the buildings.