scholarly journals Characterization of Collision Avoidance in Pedestrian Crowds

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Dawei Zhang ◽  
Haitao Zhu ◽  
Shi Qiu ◽  
Boyan Wang

The avoidance behavior of pedestrians was characterized in the present paper by simulating the movement of crowds in both unidirectional and bidirectional pedestrian flow. A phase change of alternative lane formation observed in real bidirectional pedestrian flows has been studied, where pedestrians tended to evade individuals in counterflow and simultaneously keep a certain distance from each other in the uniform pedestrian flow when the counterflow disappeared. What is more, the comparison between the effect of evading and pushing behavior on evacuation has been investigated in the room egress scenario. Additionally, the evading and overtaking behavior of fast pedestrians have also been simulated in heterogeneous crowds. The performance of the proposed model was compared to the experimental data and the results obtained using other evacuation models. Numerical results showed that both the phase change of alternative lane formation in bidirectional pedestrian flow and the effective evading behavior in unidirectional pedestrian flow were conductive to reduce the evacuation time of pedestrian crowds. Even though pushing behavior of fast pedestrians seemed to improve the flow through the wide exit, it might lead to the panic and other negative effect on the crowds, such as crowds trample. The proposed model in this paper could provide a theoretical basis for the pedestrian crowd management during emergency evacuation.

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (03) ◽  
pp. 1750034 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kongjin Zhu ◽  
Yue Yang ◽  
Yi Niu ◽  
Zhijian Fu ◽  
Qin Shi

Pedestrian flow both in normal and emergency situations (i.e. evacuation) has been widely studied by means of experiments as well as modeling methods. In this paper, an extended lattice-gas model is proposed to reproduce the pedestrian flow on multi-storey stairs during evacuations. Two-stage turning strategy is incorporated into the proposed model to simulate the 180[Formula: see text] turning behaviors of pedestrians on staircase mid-landings, and some movement characteristics such as walking preference and the probabilistic feature of turning are also considered in the extended model. The effectiveness of the model is demonstrated on different evacuation scenarios with different basic parameters. The results show that turning behavior indeed influences the pedestrian flow under the emergency situation (i.e. the drift force in the lattice-gas model is large) while walking preference has a clear negative effect on the pedestrian flow at the normal situations (i.e. the drift force in the lattice-gas model is small). In addition, the results indicate that the entrance period has more effect on the flow performance when compared with the entrance rate. The study may be useful for understanding the flow phase of pedestrians on stairs and developing efficient strategy for crowd management during evacuations.


e-Polymers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-75
Author(s):  
Haoran Yun ◽  
Xingxiang Zhang

AbstractMicrospheres with phase change properties were fabricated by polymerization of hexadecyl acrylate (HA) and different cross-linking agents. The samples were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The results show that, the samples that added cross-linking agents have a smooth surface and the latent heat of them is different. The experiments show that all of the cross-linked copolymer shells can be made into temperature controlled release microspheres. These materials can be potentially applied in the field of thermal energy storage. β-tricalcium phosphate was encapsulated in microspheres to obtain one with a fast release effect. It will effectively promote bone conduction when these microspheres were implanted into a bone defect. This microsphere can be used for orthopedic implant or coating of instrument in the future.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 3033
Author(s):  
Anastasia Stamatiou ◽  
Lukas Müller ◽  
Roger Zimmermann ◽  
Jamie Hillis ◽  
David Oliver ◽  
...  

Latent heat storage units for refrigeration processes are promising as alternatives to water/glycol-based storage due to their significantly higher energy densities, which would lead to more compact and potentially more cost-effective storages. In this study, important thermophysical properties of five phase change material (PCM) candidates are determined in the temperature range between −22 and −35 °C and their compatibility with relevant metals and polymers is investigated. The goal is to complement existing scattered information in literature and to apply a consistent testing methodology to all PCMs, to enable a more reliable comparison between them. More specifically, the enthalpy of fusion, melting point, density, compatibility with aluminum, copper, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), neoprene and butyl rubber, are experimentally determined for 1-heptanol, n-decane, propionic acid, NaCl/water mixtures, and Al(NO3)3/water mixtures. The results of the investigations reveal individual strengths and weaknesses of the five candidates. Further, 23.3 wt.% NaCl in water stands out for its very high volumetric energy density and n-decane follows with a lower energy density but better compatibility with surrounding materials and supercooling performance. The importance of using consistent methodologies to determine thermophysical properties when the goal is to compare PCM performance is highlighted.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Fardin Khalili ◽  
Peshala T. Gamage ◽  
Amirtahà Taebi ◽  
Mark E. Johnson ◽  
Randal B. Roberts ◽  
...  

Treatments of atherosclerosis depend on the severity of the disease at the diagnosis time. Non-invasive diagnosis techniques, capable of detecting stenosis at early stages, are essential to reduce associated costs and mortality rates. We used computational fluid dynamics and acoustics analysis to extensively investigate the sound sources arising from high-turbulent fluctuating flow through stenosis. The frequency spectral analysis and proper orthogonal decomposition unveiled the frequency contents of the fluctuations for different severities and decomposed the flow into several frequency bandwidths. Results showed that high-intensity turbulent pressure fluctuations appeared inside the stenosis for severities above 70%, concentrated at plaque surface, and immediately in the post-stenotic region. Analysis of these fluctuations with the progression of the stenosis indicated that (a) there was a distinct break frequency for each severity level, ranging from 40 to 230 Hz, (b) acoustic spatial-frequency maps demonstrated the variation of the frequency content with respect to the distance from the stenosis, and (c) high-energy, high-frequency fluctuations existed inside the stenosis only for severe cases. This information can be essential for predicting the severity level of progressive stenosis, comprehending the nature of the sound sources, and determining the location of the stenosis with respect to the point of measurements.


Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 107
Author(s):  
Evelyn Reyes-Cueva ◽  
Juan Francisco Nicolalde ◽  
Javier Martínez-Gómez

Environmental problems have been associated with energy consumption and waste management. A solution is the development of renewable materials such as organic phase change materials. Characterization of new materials allows knowing their applications and simulations provide an idea of how they can developed. Consequently, this research is focused on the thermal and chemical characterization of five different avocado seed oils depending on the maturity stage of the seed: 100% unripe, 25% mature-75% unripe, 50% mature-50% unripe, 75% mature-25% unripe, and 100% mature. The characterization was performed by differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. The best oil for natural environments corresponded to 100% matured seed with an enthalpy of fusion of 52.93 J·g−1, and a degradation temperature between 241–545 °C. In addition, the FTIR analysis shows that unripe seed oil seems to contain more lipids than a mature one. Furthermore, a simulation with an isothermal box was conducted with the characterized oil with an initial temperature of −14 °C for the isothermal box, −27 °C for the PCM box, and an ambient temperature of 25 °C. The results show that without the PCM the temperature can reach −8 °C and with it is −12 °C after 7 h, proving its application as a cold thermal energy system.


Author(s):  
Maria-Dimitra Tsolakidou ◽  
Ioannis A Stringlis ◽  
Natalia Fanega-Sleziak ◽  
Stella Papageorgiou ◽  
Antria Tsalakou ◽  
...  

Abstract Composts represent a sustainable way to suppress diseases and improve plant growth. Identification of compost-derived microbial communities enriched in the rhizosphere of plants and characterization of their traits, could facilitate the design of microbial synthetic communities (SynComs) that upon soil inoculation could yield consistent beneficial effects towards plants. Here, we characterized a collection of compost-derived bacteria, previously isolated from tomato rhizosphere, for in vitro antifungal activity against soil-borne fungal pathogens and for their potential to change growth parameters in Arabidopsis. We further assessed root-competitive traits in the dominant rhizospheric genus Bacillus. Certain isolated rhizobacteria displayed antifungal activity against the tested pathogens and affected growth of Arabidopsis, and Bacilli members possessed several enzymatic activities. Subsequently, we designed two SynComs with different composition and tested their effect on Arabidopsis and tomato growth and health. SynCom1, consisting of different bacterial genera, displayed negative effect on Arabidopsis in vitro, but promoted tomato growth in pots. SynCom2, consisting of Bacilli, didn't affect Arabidopsis growth, enhanced tomato growth and suppressed Fusarium wilt symptoms. Overall, we found selection of compost-derived microbes with beneficial properties in the rhizosphere of tomato plants, and observed that application of SynComs on poor substrates can yield reproducible plant phenotypes.


2013 ◽  
Vol 687 ◽  
pp. 255-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Cunha ◽  
José Barroso Aguiar ◽  
Victor Ferreira ◽  
António Tadeu

Increasingly in a society with a high growth rate and standards of comfort, the need to minimize the currently high energy consumption by taking advantage of renewable energy sources arises. The mortars with incorporation of phase change materials (PCM) have the ability to regulate the temperature inside buildings, contributing for an increase in the level of thermal comfort and reduction of the use of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, using only the energy supplied by the sun. However, the incorporation of PCM in mortars modifies some of its characteristics. Therefore, the main objective of this study was the characterization of mortars doped with two different phase change materials. Specific properties of different PCM, such as particle size, shape and enthalpy were studied, as well as the properties of the fresh and hardened state of these mortars. Nine different compositions were developed which were initially doped with microcapsules of PCM A and subsequently doped with microcapsules of PCM B. It was possible to observe that the incorporation of phase change materials in mortars causes differences in properties such as compressive strength, flexural strength and shrinkage. After the study of the behaviour of these mortars with the incorporation of two different phase change materials, it was possible to select the composition with a better compromise between its aesthetic appearance, physical and mechanical characteristics.


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