Simulation Modeling on Emergency Evacuation in High-Speed Railway Stations in China

A simulation study on occupant evacuation in high-speed railway stations （HSRSs） was presented in China. Pathfinder was employed as the simulation platform and a typical HSRS in a medinm-sized city in China was selected for model development. The model was carefully calibrated and validated by comparing simulation results with field data. Evacuation efficiency could be improved with the increased door width while such effect decreased when the door width reached a marginal value. And the marginal value varied under different occupant densities. An exponential function between evacuation lime and occupant density was fitted, indicating that occupant density significantly affected evacuation efficiency. A set of different evacuation strategies were compared, in terms of their evacuation performances. It was found that a balanced door usage would result in more efficient evacuations in HSRSs. Thus occupant flows were suggested to be managed considering door capacity. To avoid potential safety issues caused by such strategy （ e. g. , more occupants could be evacuated from a smaller area designed with higher door capacity ）, occupants needed to enhance their awareness of following evacuation guidance instead of panic escape in emergencies. Moreover, such safety issues could also be avoided during the design phase that the evacuation capacity was designed to be proportional to the room capacity for each floor. The results of this study provide valuable information for HSRS design and flow management in China.

Earthquake Emergency Response System of High-speed Railway by Least Square Method

This paper studies the Least Square Method to define high-speed railway(HSR) earthquake risk and solve the problem of its emergency response mechanism. Based on the construction of a monitoring system for HSR earthquake emergency response, the technical operational procedures for HSR seismic emergency response are proposed. The quantity, scale, and location of HSR earthquake emergency response mechanism are defined, and the corresponding emergency response system is built. In particular, the earthquake emergency response system can conduct real-time continuous dynamic monitoring of seismic activity along the railway. When earthquake occurs, the intensity of the ground motion is detected by the system. When the earthquake monitoring value reaches the earthquake alarm threshold, it will send an alarm signal to the dispatch center, and the emergency power supply will be forced to cut off. The earthquake emergency response system will continue to monitor the follow-up ground motion acceleration. The system provides the operation scheduling center with a basis for train operation control to resume operation after stopping. The monitoring result of the system reduces the disaster, and the secondary disaster is caused by the earthquake. This paper improves the HSR response mechanism in detecting earthquake disasters. The result improves the ability of HSR to deal with earthquake disasters, and reduces casualties and economic and property loss caused by earthquake disasters.

Research on revision of relevant provisions of high-speed railway emergency disposal in the regulations on railway technical management(RRTM)

Purpose–This study aims to improve the rules and regulations system of high-speed rail emergency disposal.Design/methodology/approach–Based on the analysis of the demands,rules and regulations of China concerning on-site high-speed rail emergency disposal,basic principles for revising the regulations on railway technical management(RRTM)are proposed and suggestions and evaluation methods according to the main clauses are put forward.Findings–Basic principles for revising the RRTM are proposed,namely“to meet the actual needs of on-site high-speed railway emergency disposal,standardize the emergency disposal process,improve the efficiency of emergency disposal and keep the consistency between provisions of emergency disposal”.Existing provisions related to emergency disposal efficiency,scenarios,safety and service quality are made up for the deficiencies.To make up for the deficiencies of the existing provisions related to emergency disposal efficiency,improvement of emergency disposal scenarios and guarantee of emergency disposal safety and quality,this paper puts forward suggestions on revising 15 emergency disposal provisions of the RRTM with regard to earthquake monitoring and warning,in-station foreign body invasion warning,air conditioning failure of EMU trains and forced parking of trains in sections.A fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model based on the analytic hierarchy process(AHP)is constructed to evaluate the proposed revision scheme and suggestions,which has been highly recognized by experts.Originality/value–This study implements the goal of high-quality railway development.

Overview of China high-speed railway earthquake early-warning system

Amidst China's aggressive expansion of its high-speed rail network,the intersection of these lines with seismic fault zones has elevated the risk profile for high-speed rail travel.To counteract the potential dangers posed by seismic disturbances,China has introduced a comprehensive high-speed railway earthquake early-warning system.This article presents an in-depth examination of this system,encompassing aspects such as its developmental evolution,architectural design,and pivotal technologies.Furthermore,it ventures into the realm of future enhancements and developmental pathways for the system,fusing emergent findings from earthquake early warning research with advancements in artificial intelligence.

A two-layer optimization model for high-speed railway line planning

Line planning is the first important strategic element in the railway operation planning process,which will directly affect the successive planning to determine the efficiency of the whole railway system.A two-layer optimization model is proposed within a simulation framework to deal with the high-speed railway (HSR) line planning problem.In the model,the top layer aims at achieving an optimal stop-schedule set with the service frequencies,and is formulated as a nonlinear program,solved by genetic algorithm.The objective of top layer is tominimize the total operation cost and unserved passenger volume.Given a specific stop-schedule,the bottom layer focuses on weighted passenger flow assignment,formulated as a mixed integer program with the objective of maximizing the served passenger volume andminimizing the total travel time for all passengers.The case study on Taiwan HSR shows that the proposed two-layer model is better than the existing techniques.In addition,this model is also illustrated with the Beijing-Shanghai HSR in China.The result shows that the two-layer optimization model can reduce computation complexity and that an optimal set of stop-schedules can always be generated with less calculation time.