Document Type
Research Paper
Publication Date
2012
Abstract
At a disaster affected region, relief centers distribute critical supplies and aid to the affected victims. Unlike traditional distribution centers, relief centers experience significant ‘crowd effects’ due to the sudden influx of victims in a confined space. Using knowledge from studies on pedestrian traffic flow, specialized state dependent queuing models are developed to model the flow of victims along the walkways setup at a relief center. The underlying queuing network model is analyzed to derive expressions for the average times that victims experience before they receive the service at the relief center. The research shows that crowd density effects lead to significant increase in congestion and queuing delays underscoring the importance of developing specialized queuing models that assess the impact of congestion effects on alternative layouts of relief centers.
Publication Title
Progress in Material Handling Research: 2012
Recommended Citation
Krishnamurthy, Ananth; Bhat, Sanket; and Roy, Debjit, "Performance Trade-offs in Layouts For Relief Centers" (2012). 12th IMHRC Proceedings (Gardanne, France – 2012). 15.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/pmhr_2012/15
Included in
Industrial Engineering Commons, Operational Research Commons, Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons
Comments
Paper 17