Theoretical analysis and simulation of pedestrian evacuation under invisible conditions

We study a class of pedestrian evacuation process in rooms without visibility by analytical and simulative methods. First, the moving distance of pedestrians for leaving the rooms is analyzed using the mean and variance theory. A microscopic pedestrian model is then extended to simulate pedestrian evacuation in the rooms. By numerical examples, the distributions of single individual's evacuation efficiency in the rooms and the improvement by increasing the number of exits for the individual's evacuation efficiency are demonstrated. Pedestrians' moving distances obtained by analytical and simulative methods are also compared. The study is helpful for assessing the efficiency of evacuation and the safety of buildings under conditions of invisibility.