A Flow Control Algorithm for Multi-sources Emergency Evacuation in Public Facilities

A flow control strategy is an effective method for evacuating people in public facilities.Based on the existing fast flow control algorithm for single-source,a global optimization algorithm for multi-sources emergency evacuation is presented with consideration of the decentralized distribution of people in actual public facilities.The basic principles that the evacuation from all exits should be finished simultaneously and the exits should be uninterruptedly used by people are taken into account in the presented algorithm.According to the presented algorithm,the parameters for each source corresponding with each exit can be calculated such as the number of people and their walking path,the action time from a source and the finishing time leaving an exit.By applying the algorithm to a department store,it can be concluded that in the case of multi-sources evacuation,the optimal evacuation of each source can be ensured if each source independently applies the fast flow control algorithm for single-source.But the overall evacuation efficiency is not optimal.Whereas,the global optimization algorithm for evacuation can take full advantage of evacuation time difference among different exits so that the overall evacuation time can be reduced and the evacuation efficiency can be improved.