A modified floor field model is proposed to simulate pedestrian evacuation in rooms with internal obstacles and multiple exits. The modifications lie in developing a method to calculate the static floor field for every lattice site, which is determined by the most feasible distance to an exit, and employing a logit-based discrete choice principle to govern the exit selection. Simulation results show that the evacuation time is sensitive to the exit position and some model parameters. For pedestrians unfamiliar with the exit location, additional doors may not be necessary and can cause a negative effect on evacuation time. It is also found that unfamiliarity with the room's inner configuration and blindly following others will lead to an increase of the evacuation time.

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A method for formulating the route choice behavior of pedestrians in evacuation in closed areas with internal obstacles is proposed. The method is implemented in a pedestrian model, in which the route choice is determined by the potential of discrete space. The potential measures the total effect of such factors affecting route choice as route distance, pedestrian congestion and route capacity. Using scenario simulations, the proposed method is compared with several existing methods. Simulation results indicate that the proposed method can simulate two classes of phenomena that cannot be reproduced accurately by those existing methods. In addition, two examples of inefficient evacuation as regards route choice are given. The two examples illustrate that, for improving the efficiency of evacuation, excessive or limited sensitivity of pedestrians to the route capacity may be unhelpful, and adding an extra route may be inefficient.

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