Crowd turbulence: the physics of crowd disasters
Physics and Society
2007-08-27 v1 Fluid Dynamics
Abstract
The panic stampede is a serious concern during mass events like soccer championship games. Despite huge numbers of security forces and crowd control measures, hundreds of lives are lost in crowd disasters each year. An analysis of video recordings of the annual pilgrimage in Makkah reveals how high-density crowds develop to turbulent dynamics and earthquake-like eruptions, which is impossible to control.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0708.3339,
title = {Crowd turbulence: the physics of crowd disasters},
author = {Dirk Helbing and Anders Johansson and Habib Z. Al-Abideen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0708.3339},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
For a more detailed study see http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0701203