Pedestrian epidemic coupling modeling and simulation based on social force model

ABSTRACT

In order to meet the global common needs of COVID-19 epidemic containment, it is particularly important to establish a pedestrian walking model considering the interaction between pedestrians and epidemic situation, aiming at the problem of massive epidemic spread caused by pedestrian aggregation in public places. In this paper, based on the social force model, the authors established the pedestrian movement model under the epidemic background firstly. Then, according to the characteristics of COVID-19 epidemic, an infection model is established to simulate the single person's dynamic behavior of infection, thus, the pedestrian walking model with population epidemic coupling is proposed. Finally, the spread law of the epidemic situation was simulated by using computer simulation technology. The results showed that pedestrian flow rate, coverage rate of pedestrian protection measures, pedestrian spacing and pedestrian walking speed were the key factors affecting the spread of the epidemic. When the pedestrian flow rate was 1700 person / h, the number of infected persons within 500s had reached 27. Therefore, the control of pedestrian flow rate can be the most important direction of epidemic containment.