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Social distancing slows down steady dynamics in pedestrian flows

Amidst the ongoing pandemic, social distancing has been broadly adopted as an effective front-line defense strategy for mitigating disease transmission. Viewed through the lens of particle-based simulations of flow, the practice of social distancing corresponds to a (significant) increase in an inte...

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Autores principales: Kramer, Kelby B., Wang, Gerald J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: AIP Publishing LLC 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8561655/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34737530
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0062331
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author Kramer, Kelby B.
Wang, Gerald J.
author_facet Kramer, Kelby B.
Wang, Gerald J.
author_sort Kramer, Kelby B.
collection PubMed
description Amidst the ongoing pandemic, social distancing has been broadly adopted as an effective front-line defense strategy for mitigating disease transmission. Viewed through the lens of particle-based simulations of flow, the practice of social distancing corresponds to a (significant) increase in an internal length scale of the flow, namely, the radius within which particles (pedestrians) strongly repel fellow particles. In this study, we report the results of two-dimensional pedestrian dynamics simulations modeling pedestrian counter-flows under confinement, in which individual pedestrians are described as active particles that aim to maintain a target speed while avoiding collisions. By systematically varying two quantities—the pedestrian density and the degree of social distancing—we compute fundamental diagrams for confined and socially distanced pedestrian flows, which show average pedestrian speed as a function of density and social distancing. These results reveal the sensitive dependence of average velocity on both independent variables, including a social distancing-induced jamming transition. These results highlight the need for both deliberate planning and careful public-health messaging regarding social distancing as shared indoor spaces return to appreciable levels of occupation.
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spelling pubmed-85616552021-11-02 Social distancing slows down steady dynamics in pedestrian flows Kramer, Kelby B. Wang, Gerald J. Phys Fluids (1994) ARTICLES Amidst the ongoing pandemic, social distancing has been broadly adopted as an effective front-line defense strategy for mitigating disease transmission. Viewed through the lens of particle-based simulations of flow, the practice of social distancing corresponds to a (significant) increase in an internal length scale of the flow, namely, the radius within which particles (pedestrians) strongly repel fellow particles. In this study, we report the results of two-dimensional pedestrian dynamics simulations modeling pedestrian counter-flows under confinement, in which individual pedestrians are described as active particles that aim to maintain a target speed while avoiding collisions. By systematically varying two quantities—the pedestrian density and the degree of social distancing—we compute fundamental diagrams for confined and socially distanced pedestrian flows, which show average pedestrian speed as a function of density and social distancing. These results reveal the sensitive dependence of average velocity on both independent variables, including a social distancing-induced jamming transition. These results highlight the need for both deliberate planning and careful public-health messaging regarding social distancing as shared indoor spaces return to appreciable levels of occupation. AIP Publishing LLC 2021-10 2021-10-19 /pmc/articles/PMC8561655/ /pubmed/34737530 http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0062331 Text en © 2021 Author(s). Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ).
spellingShingle ARTICLES
Kramer, Kelby B.
Wang, Gerald J.
Social distancing slows down steady dynamics in pedestrian flows
title Social distancing slows down steady dynamics in pedestrian flows
title_full Social distancing slows down steady dynamics in pedestrian flows
title_fullStr Social distancing slows down steady dynamics in pedestrian flows
title_full_unstemmed Social distancing slows down steady dynamics in pedestrian flows
title_short Social distancing slows down steady dynamics in pedestrian flows
title_sort social distancing slows down steady dynamics in pedestrian flows
topic ARTICLES
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8561655/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34737530
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0062331
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