How Oasys proved invaluable

The four steps of MassMotion are Create, Simulate, Analyse and Revise – the key strategy to enhancing user experience. These stages offer new ways to provide even greater flexibility to model pedestrians and put people at the heart of the design process.

1. Create – importing, building, and editing geometry.

Waldeck imported a Revit model into Oasys MassMotion, from the model created by their architectural team.

2. Simulate – simulate scenarios based on a client’s project requirements.

Simulations were set up and created to align with Perry Barr’s peak train times, with Platform 1 and 2 trains arrival being three minutes apart with the passenger boarding and alighting demands taken from peak 3-hour survey data and factored by the 58%. In addition, the provision of gate lines was simulated to aid future development of the station should these be installed later.

The station design was stress-tested for several additional scenarios:

• Out of hours operations
• Event traffic
• Reduced capacity resulting from an entrance being out of use due to a malfunction or closed for safety reasons
• Provision of ticket barriers on peak trains
• Maximum capacity of pedestrians during peak hours

3. Analyse – diagnose potential capacity, flow, and congestion issues.

Pedestrian Flow Modelling confirmed the suitability of the design at each major stage of the project and aided the streamlining of the scheme to suit budget and visual aspirations.

The station is located near Aston Villa Football Ground and anecdotal evidence identified a noticeable impact on the passenger flow during pre and post sporting events despite only a few trains being affected by this. An initial event train scenario was run as part of the project determining stress points. This could be built upon with further scenarios and flow options run to aid station management for frequent events and for special events taking place, such as the Commonwealth Games 2022.

4. Revise – fix issues early, saving time and expenses.

When the client was considering changes to the platform arrangement, Waldeck were able to use MassMotion to quickly assess the feasibility and impact of the changes on the pedestrian flow prior to incurring any significant costs due to abortive works.

By using MassMotion and through the adoption of the Create, Simulate, Analyse and Revise strategy for this project, Waldeck have been able to undertake the required pedestrian flow modelling to confirm the design suitability. The use of MassMotion facilitated quick decision making through the adaptability of the model to suit any design changes.

Read the full case study here.

Oasys would like to thank Waldeck Consulting for sharing this work with us.