PathFinder-Based Simulation Study on Passenger Evacuation in Subway Stations During Floods

When floods backflow into subway stations, passenger movement is severely obstructed, and the safety of lives and property cannot be guaranteed. This paper establishes a simulation system for passenger evacuation movements in subway stations during floods using Fluent and PathFinder software. The impact of flood intrusion on passenger evacuation behavior in subway stations is studied, with a focus on analyzing the effects of the initial intrusion velocity of flood at the inlet, the number of inlets, and the number of passengers on the evacuation efficiency. The simulation results indicate that real-time changes in flood flow velocity and water depth during the invasion process of the flood significantly affect passenger evacuation time. The greater the initial intrusion velocity of flood and the more inlets there are, the higher the risk of instability for passengers during evacuation and the lower the evacuation efficiency. High passenger flow during evacuation can easily lead to congestion, which is detrimental to the evacuation process. Studying the characteristics of passenger evacuation in subway stations under flood scenarios could positively promote both evacuation efficiency and safety.