Empirical relationships among pedestrian flow characteristics in an indoor facility

Abstract

Pedestrian flow characteristics are site and region specific. For developing a safe evacuation system for indoor facilities, pedestrian characteristics on such facilities should be well understood. In this study, the findings of a study of pedestrian flow characteristics for level walkways and stairways inside a hall room type facility are described. The empirical relationships between different pedestrian characteristics are presented mathematically as well as graphically. In addition, the free-flow speeds of pedestrians for level walkways and stairways are observed, which is necessary to assess the pedestrian flow characteristics at high congestion. The comparison of the findings of current study with that of other previous studies on outdoor and different types of indoor facilities indicates the significance of this study. The relationships that have been established in this study could be used as guidelines for the development of evacuation models for hall room type facilities.