In human physics, Le Roy F. Henderson (1927-), or Leroy Henderson or L.F. Henderson, is an Australian mechanical engineer and crowd dynamics researcher noted for his 1970s models of crowd behavior and pedestrian traffic on fluid mechanics (human fluid models) and ideal gas models (human particle models). [1]
Crowd dynamics
Henderson's first paper on human crowd motion was his the highly-cited 1971 “The Statistics of Crowd Fluids”, Henderson who monitored the movements of college students on a campus and children on a playground, finding that in both cases their movements fit the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, meaning that both velocities of gas particles and the speeds of students follow a Gaussian distribution. Henderson, according to Len Fisher (2009), also, interestingly, noted a difference between the movements of children as compared to college students in that children had much more energy [or kinetic energy] and consequently moved at much higher average speeds. [2]
In 1972, Henderson did research on crowd flow at Princeton University’s aerospace and mechanical sciences department. [3] The following year, working at the University of Tokyo, he produced a report entitled “On the Theory of Human Crowd Flow”. [4]
Education
Henderson completed his BS in civil engineering in 1950 at Melbourne University, his MS, with a thesis on "The Water Jet Pump Problem", in engineering in 1952 at Melbourne University, his PhD with a thesis on "The Process of Establishing Flow in Supersonic Intakes" at University of Sydney in 1964, and his EngD with a thesis on "Gas Dynamic Papers" in 1969 at Melbourne University. From 1962 to 1989, Henderson was a professor at the University of Sydney's mechanical engineering department, where he taught courses in fluid mechanics, classical thermodynamics, and statistical thermodynamics. He retired from that position in 1990. [3]
References
1. (a) Anon. (1972). “The Sexuality of Crowds”, The Bulletin (section: Medicine and Science), Vol. 94 (Henderson, 41-##).
(b) Fisher, Len. (2009). The Perfect Swarm: the Science of Complexity in Everyday Life (Roy Henderson, pgs. 24, 183). Basic Books.
2. Henderson, L. F. (1971). “The Statistics of Crowd Fluids”, Nature, 229: 381-83.
3. (a) Henderson L.F. 1972. On the Theory of Human Crowd Flow. Dept. of Aerospace & Mechanical Sciences. Also published in Transportation Research 8, pp. 509-515.
(b) Henderson L.F. Kinetics of Human Crowd Flow. Seminar Series Fall 1972. Dept. of Aerospace & Mechanical Sciences.
4. Henderson L.F. 1973 On the Theory of Human Crowd Flow. Report No. 500 (1973).
Further reading
● Henderson L F, Lyons D J, (1972). “Sexual Differences in Human Crowd Motion”, Nature, 240: 353-55.
● Henderson L.F. & Jenkins D.M. (1974). “Response of Pedestrians to Traffic Challenge”, Transportation Research 8, 71-74.
● Henderson L .F. (1974). “On the Fluid Mechanics of Human Crowd Motion”, Transportation Research, 8: 509-15.
External links
● Le Roy F. Henderson (honorary professor) – University of Sidney.
● Le Roy Henderson (publications) – University of Sidney.
