Evacuation simulation in inclined ship environment based on improved social force model

• A model was established that considers the pushing effect of pedestrians in a ship inclination environment. • Utilized the sigmoid function to construct the relationship between inclination angle and pushing intensity. • Applied entropy method to determine the velocity attenuation coefficient. • The larger the ship's inclination angle, the more severe the pushing effect becomes due to increased panic. To evaluate the evacuation capability of pedestrians in an inclined ship environment, this paper establishes an evacuation model that incorporates both the pushing and self-adjustment forces of pedestrians, based on the social force model. The entropy method is applied to determine the coefficient of pedestrian speed attenuation. Considering the presence of panic during evacuation, a pushing effect model is developed. In this model, a Sigmoid function is used to describe the influence of the inclination angle on the intensity of the pushing effects. Pedestrian spacing and movement direction are introduced as criteria for determining the occurrence of pushing effects. A dynamic assessment of the pushing effect during evacuation is conducted, effectively simulating a realistic evacuation process in an inclined ship environment. Through simulation of a single cabin, the pushing effect among pedestrians during the evacuation process was reproduced, and the presence of pushing increased the evacuation time. Compared to related literature, the evacuation time trend in this study is generally similar; however, considering the presence of pushing effects, the evacuation time obtained in this study is relatively longer. Compared to Pathfinder, the model developed in this study can simulate the pushing effect between pedestrians and accurately reflect the behavior dynamics of crowds under ship inclination conditions.