Behavioral patterns of children during emergency evacuations: a comparative analysis of experimental observations and simulation results

Abstract

This study investigates the behavioral patterns of children during emergency evacuations through a dual approach comprising controlled experimental evacuations within a classroom and computational modeling via a cellular automaton (CA) model. Observations from the experiments reveal several characteristic behaviors among children, including preferences for destinations, the impact of obstacles on their movement, as well as patterns of exit utilization, running and pushing during the evacuation process. Drawing upon these empirical findings, a CA model is developed to encapsulate these observed behaviors. A novel algorithm is introduced within this model to simulate the pushing behavior of children during emergency evacuations. Numerical simulations are conducted to validate the capability of the model to replicate the observed behaviors. The simulation results confirm that the model accurately reproduces the child behavior during evacuations. Furthermore, the results indicate that the total evacuation time is directly influenced by both the proportion of children exhibiting pushing behavior and the strength of the pushing force. These insights advance our understanding of child behavior in emergency situations and have significant implications for enhancing public safety.