Spatio-temporal distribution of escape time in evacuation process

We study the escape-time distribution of crowd in the evacuation process through an exit from a hall. The evacuation process is simulated by the use of the lattice-gas model of pedestrian. The spatio-temporal distribution of escape time is derived. The escape time of a person depends highly on the position where the person exists initially within the hall. The dependences of the mean value and variance of escape time on the position are calculated. It is shown that the mean escape time exhibits a highest value at the front edges. The variance of escape time has a highest value at both positions just next door to the exit. The dependence of escape time on the exit width is also shown. It is found that the escape time exhibits a wide distribution depending on the initial position of people and the exit width. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.