A comparative study on the bottleneck flow between preschool children and adults under different movement motivations

Abstract

Highlights  We analyze bottleneck flow of preschool children in a laboratory experiment.  The pedestrian flow of children and adult under different movement motivations are compared.  The relation between flow and bottleneck width for children and adults are unified.  Arch-like and teardrop-shape distribution are observed for the children' and adults' movement respectively. Abstract:Understanding on children's movement characteristics is significant to improve their safety levels especially under emergencies. In this work, we performed laboratory experiment to investigate the dynamics of preschool children passing through bottlenecks under high movement motivation. It is found that the relations between flow and bottleneck width for adults and children can be unified when the body size and movement motivation are considered in certain way. High movement motivation leads to competition among pedestrians, which results in different spatial-temporal distribution of the density and speed compared to normal movement of adult. Based on Voronoi method, an arch-like distribution is observed for the children movement with competition, whereas it is teardrop-shaped for the adults without competition. The peak density of children, which reaches nearly 14 ped/m 2 , appears at the place 30 cm away from the bottleneck entrance. However, it is about 100 cm to the bottleneck for adults. Besides, several typical behaviors of children like guiding, pushing as well as playing are observed in the experiment. The findings in this study will benefit the evacuation drill design as well as the facility design for children.

Characteristic time in highly motivated movements of children and adults through bottlenecks

“…It is observed that the distributions of density are inhomogeneous over space and we observe the gradual change from high density to low density. Similar to the previous study of children passing through the bottleneck 4 , the congested areas in front of the exit display an arch-like shape, and the shape of the peak density region is similar to ellipses, whereas the peak density reaches about 7 ped/m 2 in this study which is a bit smaller than the value 8 ped/m 2 in the previous study 4 . Moreover, the peak density locates in the middle of the exit, which is closer to the bottleneck entrance compared to the previous study 4 .…”

“…Previous studies propose that higher competition leads to longer time headway both for children and for adults 4,24 . However, there exists a great difference in movement motivation of previous researches 4,24 , which doubts us the difference of time gap between children and adults both in similar high motivation. Considering this, we aim to study the distribution of the time gap of highly motivated children and adults.…”

“…Moreover, as people tend to gather around the exit and form high-density regions in previous bottleneck experiments 4,8,12,23 , to quantify the magnitude of clogging events, time headway, the time interval of two consecutive pedestrians passing through exits, are investigated. Previous studies propose that higher competition leads to longer time headway both for children and for adults 4,24 . However, there exists a great difference in movement motivation of previous researches 4,24 , which doubts us the difference of time gap between children and adults both in similar high motivation.…”

The Relationship between Different Types of Alarm Sounds and Children’s Perceived Risk Based on Their Physiological Responses

“…The evacuation experiment was semi-announced [3,11,12]; that is to say, the teachers knew about it, but the children did not. In order to ensure that the children participating in the experiment did not know what was ahead, the teachers told them they were going to play games when we installed the sensors on the children.…”

“…In recent years, the study of the evacuation of children has attracted the attention of researchers. Some countries have collected some data on the evacuation of children, mainly focusing on children's speed of movement (horizontal or by stairs), flow-density relationships, (pre)evacuation time and their route selection [2,3,5,[9][10][11][12][13]. How to evaluate children's own perception of risk has not been covered in previous studies, leading to slow progress in research on children's evacuation behaviour and subsequent development of simulation models.…”