Typically, the main considered parameters characterizing the process of evacuation from various
objects (not only from ships or other moving platforms but also from landed aircraft, buildings etc.)
are (Duives et al., 2013): the evacuation time (or its expectance, variance, probability distribution); the
crowd density (capacity); percentage of human losses.
These parameters can be estimated using various mathematical models depending on the evacuated
object’s specifics. Crowd dynamics based on macroscopic continuous fluid-like models proved to be
adequate for sufficiently vast pedestrian spaces but regarding movements of passengers on such
marine craft as passenger ferries or cruise vessels we have to deal with specific geometric constraints
imposed by relatively small cabins, narrow corridors, steep stairs etc. and stormy conditions can bring
additional complications. Because of this, movements of evacuated passengers and crew members
become different from those in more spacy and steady environments and their specifics can only be
treated appropriately by more flexible microscopic models. More or less intense ship motions may
change the behavior of both passengers and crew, for instance, periods of active advance may become
interlaced with persons just attempting to keep their balance temporarily resigning from heading to an
exit. Also, the frequency of possible collisions between the passengers and with obstacles increases.
For that reason, we use multi-agent modeling in our simulation.
Our mathematical model for passenger evacuation from a damaged ship under storm conditions is
in fact multidisciplinary as it is based on three interdependent processes forming some hierarchy: sea
waves dynamics; ship motions under the influence of sea waves; crowd dynamics taking into account
the ship motions.