Setting the Width of Emergency Exit in Pedestrian Walking Facilities

To improve the safety of pedestrian evacuation and the utilization efficiency of emergency exits in pedestrian walking facilities, the method of computing the width of emergency exits was presented in this paper. These factors of influencing the setup of exit width were analyzed from the process of pedestrian evacuation, the capacity of pedestrian passing exit and the strategy of pedestrian selecting exit. It is shown that the setup of exit width is dependent on the capacity of passing exit, the strategy of exit selection and the total sum, initial site, and aggregation degree of pedestrians in walking facilities. It is also found that the total capacity of passing exits will be low with the number of exits rising under the condition with a fixed total width of exits. The procedure of setting exit was presented to compute the number, site and width of every exit in pedestrian facilities through an example.