A new lattice hydrodynamic model for two-lane traffic with the consideration of density difference effect

A new lattice hydrodynamic model for two-lane traffic flow is proposed by introducing the density difference effect (DDE). Using linear stability theory, stability condition of the presented model is obtained. Jamming transitions among the freely moving phase, the coexisting phase, and the uniform congested phase are investigated by employing nonlinear analysis. The modified KdV (mKdV) equation near the critical point is derived and the kink-antikink soliton solutions are obtained. Numerical simulations are presented to verify analytical results, showing that DDE can improve the stability of traffic flow effectively.     

宏观交通流模型的余维2分岔分析

交通流特性是混合交通流建模的一个重要因素. 交通流模型中的分岔现象是导致复杂交通现象的因素之一. 交通流的分岔, 涉及复杂的动力学特征且研究较少. 因此, 提出了一个最优速度模型来研究驾驶员记忆对驾驶行为的影响. 基于带有记忆的最优速度连续交通流模型, 利用非线性动力学, 分析和预测了复杂交通现象. 推导了鞍结 (LP) 分岔存在条件, 并通过数值计算得到了余维1 Hopf (H) 分岔、LP分岔和同宿轨 (HC) 分岔以及余维2广义Hopf (GH) 分岔、尖点 (CP) 分岔和Bogdanov-Takens (BT) 分岔等多种分岔结构. 根据双参数分岔区域的特点, 研究了记忆参数对单参数分岔结构的影响, 分析了不同分岔结构对交通流的影响, 并用相平面描述了平衡点附近轨迹的变化特征. 选择Hopf分岔和鞍结分岔作为密度演化的起点, 描述了均匀流、稳定和不稳定的拥挤流以及走走停停现象. 结果表明, 驾驶员记忆对交通流的稳定性有重要影响; 动力学行为很好地解释了交通拥堵现象; 考虑余维2分岔的影响, 能更好地理解交通拥堵产生的根源, 并为制定有效抑制拥堵的方法提供一定的理论依据.      

Stabilization effect of multiple density difference in the lattice hydrodynamic model

In this paper, an extended lattice model is proposed by introducing the multiple density difference effect (MDDE). Stability condition of the new model is obtained through linear stability theory, which shows that considering the MDDE ahead can stabilize traffic flow effectively. The mKdV equation is derived to explore the density waves in the stable and unstable regions, respectively. The kink-antikink solution is obtained from the mKdV equation. Numerical simulation results show that multiple density difference effect (MDDE) can suppress traffic jam considerably, which is in line with the analytical results.     

Mechanical properties and deformation morphologies of covalently bridged multi-walled carbon nanotubes: Multiscale modeling

We formulate a multiscale modeling framework to investigate the deformation morphologies and energetics of covalently bridged multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The formulation involves extending a previously established quasi-continuum model by incorporating the inter-wall bridging energy density function into the constitutive relations via message passing from fully atomistic simulations. Using the extended numerical model, we studied the mechanical responses of the 10-walled MWCNT with varying inter-wall bridge densities under torsion, bending, and uniaxial compression. Our simulation results show that the presence of inter-wall covalent bridges not only enhances the post-buckling rigidities of the MWCNTs, but also modifies the deformation morphologies and morphology pathways. For bending and uniaxial compression, we constructed in the space of bridge density and applied strain the deformation morphology phase diagram, where three phases, uniformly deformed phase, rippling pattern, and diamond-shaped pattern, are identified and separated by linear phase boundaries. We attribute the deformation phase transitions to the interplay of inter-wall and intra-wall interaction energies. The multiple shape transitions of MWCNTs and the elastic nature of the deformation suggest that MWCNTs can be designed as shape-memory nanodevices with tunable stabilities.     

Phase transitions in the two-lane density difference lattice hydrodynamic model of traffic flow

In this paper, we derive the KdV equation from the two-lane lattice hydrodynamic traffic model considering density difference effect. The soliton solution is obtained from the KdV equation. Under periodical boundary, the KdV soliton of traffic flow is demonstrated by numerical simulation. The numerical simulation result is consistent with the nonlinear analytical result. Under open system, the density fluctuation of the downstream last one lattice is designed to explore the empirical congested traffic states. A phase diagram is presented which includes free traffic, moving localized cluster, triggered stop-and-go traffic, oscillating congested traffic, and homogeneous congested traffic. Finally, the spatiotemporal evolution of all the traffic states described in phase diagram are reproduced. Results suggest that the two-lane density difference hydrodynamic traffic model is suitable to describe the actual traffic.     

Analyses of the driver’s anticipation effect in a new lattice hydrodynamic traffic flow model with passing

In this paper, we studied the effect of driver’s anticipation with passing in a new lattice model. The effect of driver’s anticipation is examined through linear stability analysis and shown that the anticipation term can significantly enlarge the stability region on the phase diagram. Using nonlinear stability analysis, we obtained the range of passing constant for which kink soliton solution of mKdV equation exist. For smaller values of passing constant, uniform flow and kink jam phase are present on the phase diagram and jamming transition occurs between them. When passing constant is greater than the critical value depending on the anticipation coefficient, jamming transitions occur from uniform traffic flow to kink-bando traffic wave through chaotic phase with decreasing sensitivity. The theoretical findings are verified using numerical simulation which confirm that traffic jam can be suppressed efficiently by considering the anticipation effect in the new lattice model.     

A car-following model with the anticipation effect of potential lane changing

In this paper, a new car-following model is presented, taking into account the anticipation of potential lane changing by the leading vehicle. The stability condition of the model is obtained by using the linear stability theory. The modified Korteweg-de Vries （KdV） equation is constructed and solved, and three types of traffic flow in the headway-sensitivity space, namely stable, metastable and unstable ones, are classified. Both the analytical and simu- lation results show that anxiety about lane changing does indeed have an influence on driving behavior and that a consideration of lane changing probability in the car-following model could stabilize traffic flows. The quantitative relationship between stability improvement and lane changing probability is also investigated.     

An extended traffic flow model on a gradient highway with the consideration of the relative velocity

In this paper, an extended traffic flow model on a single-lane gradient highway is proposed with the consideration of the relative velocity. The stability condition is obtained by the use of linear stability analysis. It is shown that the stability of traffic flow on the gradient varies with the slope and the coefficient of the relative velocity: when the slope is constant, the stable regions increase with the increase of the coefficient of the relative velocity; when the coefficient of the relative velocity is constant, the stable regions increase with the decrease of the slope in downhill and increase with the increase of the slope in uphill. The Burgers, Korteweg-de Vries, and modified Korteweg-de Vries equations are derived to describe the triangular shock waves, soliton waves, and kink-antikink waves in the stable, metastable, and unstable region, respectively. The numerical simulation shows a good agreement with the analytical result, which shows that the traffic congestion can be suppressed by introducing the relative velocity.     

基于元胞自动机模型的C型交织区交通流特性

根据C型双侧交织区的车辆换道特征建立相应的换道规则,采用多车道元胞自动机模型研究交织区系统的交通流特性. 通过数值模拟得到了不同交织区长度下的相图,表明当主路和匝道交通流均为自由流时,交织区长度对系统影响不大,但当主路或匝道拥挤时,交织区长度的增加可以明显改善入口匝道的交通流状况. 进一步讨论了主路畅通而交织流量较大情形下主路上的车辆密度、速度和换道频率分布,发现换道集中在合流区和分流区附近,并造成相应路段上的局部拥堵.      

Conservation form of Helbing’s fluid dynamic traffic flow model

A standard conservation form is derived in this paper. The hyperbolicity of Helbing’s fluid dynamic traffic flow model is proved, which is essential to the general analytical and numerical study of this model. On the basis of this conservation form, a local discontinuous Galerkin scheme is designed to solve the resulting system efficiently. The evolution of an unstable equilibrium traffic state leading to a stable stop-and-go traveling wave is simulated. This simulation also verifies that the model is truly improved by the introduction of the modified diffusion coefficients, and thus helps to protect vehicles from collisions and avoide the appearance of the extremely large density.     

考虑道路信息和转向灯的可换道BML模型

车辆换道是司机为获得更好行驶条件而采用的常见措施, 而转向灯对车辆换道行为有重要的指导作用. 本文在BML (Biham-Middleton-Levine)模型的基础上加以改进, 提出了综合考虑道路信息和前车转向灯影响的可换道BML模型. 当车辆无法前行时, 如满足换道条件, 则将道路信息(车道密度及平均速度)和转向灯影响量化为车辆换道概率, 确定车辆是否可以换道. 通过数值模拟, 研究了周期边界条件下车辆换道行为对有、无交通灯控制的两种BML模型发生相变的临界密度以及系统通行能力的影响. 模拟结果表明对于无交通灯BML模型, 引入换道规则可以明显提高系统发生相变的临界密度, 在较小尺度下该临界密度接近有交通灯BML模型, 换道效果明显, 并发现了一种新的局部拥堵和自由流的共存相, 讨论了该共存相的生成和演化机制. 在较高密度下局部阻塞将演化为全局拥堵; 对于有交通灯BML模型, 引入换道规则对系统发生相变的临界密度没有明显的影响, 但相变的过渡区域更窄. 这表明有交通灯时, 换道虽然可以改变局部交通特征, 但难以显著影响交通系统的全局特征.      

A mesoscopic approach on stability and phase transition between different traffic flow states

It is understood that congestion in traffic can be interpreted in terms of the instability of the equation of dynamic motion. The evolution of a traffic system from an unstable or metastable state to a globally stable state bears a strong resemblance to the phase transition in thermodynamics. In this work, we explore the underlying physics of the traffic system, by examining closely the physical properties and mathematical constraints of the phase transitions therein. By using a mesoscopic approach, one entitles the catastrophe model the same physical content as in the Landau's theory, and uncovers its close connections to the instability of the equation of motion and to the transition between different traffic states. In addition to the one-dimensional configuration space, we generalize our discussions to the higher-dimensional case, where the observed temporal oscillation in traffic flow data is attributed to the curl of a vector field. We exhibit that our model can reproduce the main features of the observed fundamental diagram including the inverse-λ shape and the wide scattering of congested traffic data. When properly parameterized, the main feature of the data can be reproduced reasonably well either in terms of the oscillating congested traffic or in terms of the synchronized flow.     

An extended two-lane traffic flow lattice model with driver’s delay time

In this paper, a new two-lane lattice model is presented by considering the effect of drivers’ delay in sensing relative flux. By means of the linear stability analysis, the effect of drivers’ delay time on the stability of two-lane traffic flow is examined and shown that with the drivers’ delay time increasing, the unstable areas expand accordingly on the phase diagram, which is also confirmed by direct computer simulations. Through nonlinear analysis method, the modified Korteweg–deVries equation near the critical point is obtained and solved to describe the traffic- jamming transitions in a two-lane system.     

Multi-mode solitons in a long-short range traffic lattice model with time delay

We consider a new form of solutions of a special lattice model for traffic system. By analyzing nearest sites’ interactions, time delay, and bumpy effects, we deduce the bifurcation lines and surfaces for stable and unstable regions and show how they vary as parameters vary. It shows that keeping other conditions unchanged, as the incoming flow increases, the traffic flow becomes unstable, opposite to when outgoing flow increases, it becomes stable. Besides, considering delayed optimal flow, multiple sites effect or artificial parameters can also help stabilize the traffic road condition. Moreover, by putting it into the framework of mKdV equations, we obtain the kink–antikink solitons involving all parameters, which show the feature of the traffic congestion. The result is original, and our model in differential or difference form can be reduced into the previous ones by choosing appropriate parameters. Since the optimal velocity function we considered involves finitely or infinitely many sites, the density waves can be in multi-mode and high dimension forms and can also be quasi-periodic, we show a new feature of the traffic lattice system.

     

Two bifurcation transition processes in floating half zone convection of larger Prandtl number fluid

Processes of the onset oscillation in the thermocapillary convection under the Earth's gravity are investigated by the numerical simulation and experiments in a floating half zone of large Prandtl number with different volume ratio. Both computational and experimental results show that the steady and axisymmetric convection turns to the oscillatory convection ofm=1 for the slender liquid bridge, and to the oscillatory convection before a steady and 3D asymmetric state for the case of a fat liquid bridge. It implies that, there are two critical Marangoni numbers related, respectively, to these two bifurcation transitions for the fat liquid bridge. The computational results agree with the results of ground-based experiments. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (19789201) and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (95-yu-34)     

随机车辆冲击作用下简支梁桥疲劳可靠度评估

为了研究考虑随机车辆冲击效应的简支梁桥疲劳安全水平,提出了基于车-桥耦合振动与随机车流的桥梁疲劳应力谱模拟方法,并应用于疲劳可靠度评估。基于某高速公路桥梁动态称重数据建立随机车流模型,采用小样本车辆数据拟合桥梁等效疲劳应力范围的插值响应函数,最后由高斯混合模型拟合大样本随机车流作用于桥梁构件的疲劳应力谱。分析了25 m标准跨径简支T梁桥底部普通钢筋的疲劳应力谱,评估了考虑路面劣化与交通量增长的桥梁疲劳可靠度。数值分析结果表明,基于随机车流模拟的疲劳应力谱具有典型的多峰分布特征,包含了超载车辆产生的疲劳应力;车辆对桥梁的冲击效应致使等效疲劳应力放大系数略大于冲击系数,当路面等级为一般时,采用规范冲击系数将低估车辆冲击效应的疲劳损伤;路面劣化与交通量增长均会导致桥梁运营期内的疲劳可靠指标显著降低,由路面劣化导致车辆对简支梁桥的冲击效应不可忽略。     

非港湾式公交车站停靠特性的研究

基于Nagel-Schreckenberg交通流模型(简称NaSch模型),通过引入换道规则,建立包含非港湾式公交车站在内的双车道混合车辆元胞自动机交通流模型.计算机数值模拟表明,在周期边界条件下非港湾式公交车站路段的交通流存在一定的特性,在中等密度区域的拥挤流, 车辆的平均速度与车流密度存在一次幂律关系.      

An extended car-following model accounting for the honk effect and numerical tests

In this paper, an extended car-following model is proposed to simulate traffic flow by considering the honk effect. The stability condition of this model is obtained by using the linear stability analysis. The phase diagram shows that the honk effect plays an important role in improving the stabilization of traffic system. The mKdV equation near the critical point is derived to describe the evolution properties of traffic density waves by applying the reductive perturbation method. Furthermore, the numerical simulation is carried out to validate the analytical results and indicates that the traffic jam can be suppressed efficiently via taking into account the honk effect.     

Nonlinear Assessment of Cable Vibration in a Stayed Bridge

An experimental study for cables in a stayed bridge is presented. In this analysis, the tensions on the cables were calculated considering linear and nonlinear approaches; for the nonlinear analysis a 2D model was used to evaluate vibration modes and responses under wind and traffic loads. The 8 semi-harp cable stayed bridge used for this study has 112 cables and vibration measurements were done under normal operational conditions. Tensions computed from the nonlinear model were compared with those from the traditional linear model, where average differences were within 3.3%. The estimated tensions from vibration tests have good correlation with the experimental values measured from load tests, while the vibration procedure was carried out in less than 2 days without limiting the bridge operation; converse to the load tests where approximately 30 days are necessary and the bridge traffic has to be closed for short periods during measurements.     

Lane changing analysis for two-lane traffic flow

In this paper, the two-lane traffic are studied by using the lane-changing rules in the car-following models. The simulation show that the frequent lane changing occurs when the lateral distance in car following activities is considered and it gives rise to oscillating waves. In contrast, if the lateral distance is not considered (or considered occasionally), the lane changing appears infrequently and soliton waves occurs. This implies that the stabilization mechanism no longer functions when the lane changing is permitted. Since the oscillating and soliton waves correspond to the unstable and metastable flow regimes, respectively, our study verifies that a phase transition may occur as a result of the lane changing. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (70521001, 10404025, 10532060), the National Basic Research Program of China (2006CB705503) and the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKU7031/02E, HKU7187/05E). The English text was polished by Boyi Wang.