Evacuation Simulation of Passengers in Railway Tunnels

In this paper, we have studied the influence of rail vehicle and rail tunnel characteristics on passenger behavior during evacuation. We have looked at influences of vehicle type, vehicle load, calamity location, escape path width, escape door capacity, distance between escape doors and passenger walking speed on total evacuation time. Using the microscopic simulation tool Nomad, we have calculated evacuation times for different scenarios. In each scenario, a single tunnel or vehicle characteristic is changed. The evacuation time of this scenario is then compared to the reference scenario to show its influence. Repeating this for a range of values for different parameters leads to relations between parameters and evacuation time. These relations may be used by designers of rail tunnels to predict evacuation times, as is shown with an example in this paper.