Simulations of Evacuation Using Small World Network

A stochastic cellular automaton(CA) model using Small World Network [5] has been proposed to simulate evacuation of persons from a room with plural exits. The number of persons escaping from each door is studied numerically in several kinds of rooms. Numerical results of them are compared with those calculated according to the law of “Building Standard Art” (BSA) in Japan. The calculations in the BSA are based on a few experimental facts and a simple queue theory, thus we will check how they coincide with our direct simulations. It is found that on average the results of simulations and of the BSA show good agreement though their variations are quite large. The effect of the SWN is seen in the total time of evacuation from the room, which becomes the maximum value in this case. Since the transmition speed of information is high in the SWN, it is seen that many people will rush into the door simultaneously and they cannot move freely due to congestion.