Pedestrian Evacuation With Herding Behavior in the View-Limited Condition

In this paper, pedestrian evacuation in the view-limited condition is investigated by using an extended social force model that considers both visibility distance and herding behavior. At first, the relations between visibility distance and mean evacuation time, density evolution, respectively, are explored. Then, the effects of herding behavior on the evacuation features, i.e., mean value and frequency distribution of evacuation times, and the evacuation process are investigated. The results show that in a certain range, the larger the visibility distance is, the faster is the evacuation process, and different visibilities lead to different tendencies of density fluctuations. It is found that herding behavior plays a beneficial role in evacuation and group formation appears when herding behavior dominates the selection of directions. In addition, the dual effects of pedestrian density on mean evacuation time are discovered. Our research can provide the theoretical guidance for the formulation of evacuation strategies in the view-limited condition.