CONTENT

Content Vii

Index of Figures ix
Acronyms x

Introduction 1

Chapter 1
Mathematical modeling 4
1.1 Outline of mathematical modeling 4
1.2 Mathematical model of traffic flow 5
1.3 Basic variables of macroscopic traffic model 6
1.3.1 Velocity field of traffic 6
1.3.2 Density of traffic 7
1.3.3 Flux of traffic 8
1.3.4 A key equation: Flux equals velocity time’s density 8
1.4 Derivation of the macroscopic traffic flow model 9
1.5 Specific speed-density relationship 12
1.6 Flow-density relationship 14

Chapter 2
Analytical method for the traffic flow model 16
2.1 Method of characteristics 16
2.1.1 General strategy 17
2.2 Analytic solution of the macroscopic traffic model 17
2.3 Development of singularities for analytic solution 20
2.4 Existence & uniqueness of the solution 20
2.4.1 The Cauchy-kovaleveskaya theorem 20
2.4.2 Existence & uniqueness of the traffic flow model 21
2.5 Shock waves of traffic flow 21

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Chapter 3
Numerical schemes for the traffic model 23
3.1 Linear finite difference schemes 23
3.1.1 Basics of discretization 23
3.1.2 Explicit schemes for linear advection equation 25
3.2 Explicit schemes for nonlinear equation 26
3.3 Stability of the scheme 26
3.4 Error analysis of the scheme 27
3.5 Numerical scheme for the traffic flow model 30
3.6 Stencil of the scheme 31
3.7 Stability and well-posed-ness of the numerical scheme 32

Chapter 4
Numerical simulation 34
4.1 Incorporation of initial & boundary data 34
4.2 Algorithm for the numerical solution of traffic flow model 35
4.3 Error estimation of the numerical scheme 37
4.4 Numerical results for traffic flow 39
4.5 Implementation of the traffic flow model 50

Chapter 5
Conclusion & Future research 52
5.1 Conclusion 52
5.2 Future research 53

Bibliography 54

viii
 INDEX OF FIGURES

Fig: 1.1 Diagram of mathematical modeling------------------------------ 4

Fig: 1.2 Non-linear velocity-density function----------------------------- 13
Fig: 1.3 Fundamental diagram of traffic flow----------------------------- 15
Fig: 2.1 The characteristics for traffic flow model------------------------ 18
Fig: 2.2 Traffic jam shock waves------------------------------------------- 22
Fig: 3.1 Spatial and temporal discretization------------------------------ 24
Fig: 3.2 Typical domain of dependence----------------------------------- 26
Fig: 3.3 Error analysis of the scheme-------------------------------------- 28
Fig: 3.4 Stencil of the scheme---------------------------------------------- 31
Fig: 4.1 Error of the numerical solution-----------------------------------37
Fig 4.2: Error profile---------------------------------------------------------38
Fig: 4.3 Initial traffic density in 0.1 km------------------------------------39
Fig: 4.4 Comparison between initial position & after 6 minutes------- 40
Fig: 4.5 Density of Car for 6 minutes-------------------------------------- 41
Fig: 4.6 Density of Car for 9 minutes-------------------------------------- 42
Fig: 4.7 Car Density for 12 minutes---------------------------------------- 43
Fig: 4.8 Velocity Profile----------------------------------------------------- 44
Fig: 4.9 Flux of traffic--------------------------------------------------------45
Fig: 4.10 Traffic velocity as a function of density-------------------------46
Fig: 4.11 Flux as a function of density 0     max ------------------------ 47
Fig: 4.12 Car density waves moves much slower for smaller V max ------
48
Fig: 4.13 Density profile for a source term-------------------------------- 49

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Fig: 4.14 Density-velocity relation of Dhaka-Aricha highway-----------51

ACRONYMS

CFL Courant, Friedrichs and Lewy

EUDS Explicit Upwind Difference Scheme

IBVP Initial Boundary Value Problem

IVP Initial Value Problem

LWR Lighthill, Whitham and Richards

ODE Ordinary Differential Equations

PDE Partial Differential Equations

RHD Roads and Highways Department