A fully-discrete-state kinetic theory approach to traffic flow on road networks

This paper presents a new approach to the modeling of vehicular traffic flows on road networks based on kinetic equations. While in the literature the problem has been extensively studied by means of macroscopic hydrodynamic models, to date there are still not, to the authors' knowledge, contributions tackling it from a genuine statistical mechanics point of view. Probably one of the reasons is the higher technical complexity of kinetic traffic models, further increased in case of several interconnected roads. Here such difficulties of the theory are overcome by taking advantage of a discrete structure of the space of microscopic states of the vehicles, which is also significant in view of including the intrinsic microscopic granularity of the system in the mesoscopic representation.Comment: 36 pages, 10 figure

A numerical method for junctions in networks of shallow-water channels

There is growing interest in developing mathematical models and appropriate numerical methods for problems involving networks formed by, essentially, one-dimensional (1D) domains joined by junctions. Examples include hyperbolic equations in networks of gas tubes, water channels and vessel networks for blood and lymph in the human circulatory system. A key point in designing numerical methods for such applications is the treatment of junctions, i.e. points at which two or more 1D domains converge and where the flow exhibits multidimensional behaviour. This paper focuses on the design of methods for networks of water channels. Our methods adopt the finite volume approach to make full use of the two-dimensional shallow water equations on the true physical domain, locally at junctions, while solving the usual one-dimensional shallow water equations away from the junctions. In addition to mass conservation, our methods enforce conservation of momentum at junctions; the latter seems to be the missing element in methods currently available. Apart from simplicity and robustness, the salient feature of the proposed methods is their ability to successfully deal with transcritical and supercritical flows at junctions, a property not enjoyed by existing published methodologies. Systematic assessment of the proposed methods for a variety of flow configurations is carried out. The methods are directly applicable to other systems, provided the multidimensional versions of the 1D equations are available

A Review of Traffic Signal Control.

The aim of this paper is to provide a starting point for the future research within the SERC sponsored project "Gating and Traffic Control: The Application of State Space Control Theory". It will provide an introduction to State Space Control Theory, State Space applications in transportation in general, an in-depth review of congestion control (specifically traffic signal control in congested situations), a review of theoretical works, a review of existing systems and will conclude with recommendations for the research to be undertaken within this project