Modelling mass crowd using discrete event simulation: A case study of integrated Tawaf and Sayee rituals during Hajj

Nazim Khan, Almoaid Owaidah, Doina Olaru, Mohammed Bennamoun, Ferdous Sohel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Hajj is a mass gathering event that takes place annually in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Typically, around three million people participate in the event and perform rituals that involve their movements within strict space and time restrictions. Despite efforts by the Hajj organisers, such massive crowd gathering and
movement cause overcrowding related problems at the Hajj sites. Several previous simulation studies on Hajj focused on the rituals individually. Tawaf, followed by Sayee, are two important rituals that are performed by
all the pilgrims at the same venue on the same day. These events have a strong potential for crowd buildup and related problems. As opposed the previous works in the literature, in this paper we study these two events jointly, rather than separately. We use ExtendSim, a Discrete Event Simulation tool, to integrate the
Tawaf and Sayee rituals into one model. The validated model was applied to a wide range of scenarios where different percentages of pilgrims were allocated to the various Tawaf and Sayee areas. The effect of such allocations on the time to complete Tawaf and Sayee indicate strategies for managing these two key Hajj
rituals.
Original languageEnglish
Article number9439797
Pages (from-to)79424-79448
Number of pages25
JournalIEEE Access
Volume9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 24 May 2021

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