Civil Safety Research (IAS-7)

The institute section Civil Safety Research covers the scientific fields of pedestrian and fire dynamics. With a focus on basic research, our methods include experiments, modelling and computer-based simulations. Our work is closely linked to the following chairs at the University of Wuppertal.

Department of Computer Simulation for Fire Safety and Pedestrian Traffic
Computational Civil Engineering, Bergische Universität Wuppertal
Social Psychology, Bergische Universität Wuppertal

Spotlight

Technologies for Computer Assisted Crowd Management

CrowdDNA is a first attempt to combine biomechanical and behavioural simulation in complex scenarios of interactions between many humans. We aim to revolutionize the practices of crowd management to answer the requirements of modern society on safety and comfort at mass events or in crowded transportation facilities.

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Analysis of Space Usage on Train Station Platforms Based on Trajectory Data

The article presents how boarding and alighting passengers show different behavior at the platform. Alighters leave the platform in a mostly straight way, while boarding passengers arrive with head time to their train and therefore spend some time waiting at the platform. Their trajectories cover a much larger area. Due to the amount of waiting time, the mean speed of boarders is significantly lower than the mean speed of alighters.

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In-depth: Interdisciplinary investigations of pushing in dense crowds

The combination of density and uncontrollable movement can create life-threatening situations in large crowds. Our research combines physics, psychology and AI to understand the role of pushing in these situations…

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Velocity measurements of a bench scale buoyant plume applying particle image velocimetry

Experimental investigation of the buoyant plume above an electrically heated block of copper.

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Artificial Intelligence-Driven Detection of Pushing Behavior in Human Crowds

In this research work, a novel automatic AI-based system was developed to detect pushing in crowds, especially in video recordings and live camera streams of event entrances.

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CrowdDNA is a first attempt to combine biomechanical and behavioural simulation in complex scenarios of interactions between many humans. We aim to revolutionize the practices of crowd management to answer the requirements of modern society on safety and comfort at mass events or in crowded transportation facilities.

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Divisions

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Fire Dynamics

Our research in the field of fire dynamics covers bench scale experiments, development of new numerical methods and large-scale simulations on HPC systems.

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Pedestrian Dynamics - Empiricism

Controlled experiments allow the quantitative description of pedestrian dynamics and enable the analysis of selected parameters under well-defined constant conditions. Data of these experiments is collected and analyzed by appropriately selected sensors and self-developed software.

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Pedestrian Dynamics - Modeling

Our research is guided by the following research question: How can we understand the properties of a crowd and predict its dynamics in closed and open spaces? This question is addressed through a research design that weaves together three streams: development of operative models, investigation of route choice models, and software engineering. In this way, our division aims for interdisciplinary research.

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Pedestrian Dynamics - Social Psychology

Our division studies the experience of being in a crowd and the influence of social psychological parameters on pedestrian dynamics. We follow a multimethod approach using quantitative as well as qualitative methods to investigate various socio-psychological mechanisms in crowds, such as social influence, emotion, or social norms.

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