Kinetic derivation of a Hamilton-Jacobi traffic flow model

Kinetic models for vehicular traffic are reviewed and considered from the point of view of deriving macroscopic equations. A derivation of the associated macroscopic traffic flow equations leads to different types of equations: in certain situations modified Aw-Rascle equations are obtained. On the other hand, for several choices of kinetic parameters new Hamilton-Jacobi type traffic equations are found. Associated microscopic models are discussed and numerical experiments are presented discussing several situations for highway traffic and comparing the different models

Fundamental diagrams in traffic flow: the case of heterogeneous kinetic models

Experimental studies on vehicular traffic provide data on quantities like density, flux, and mean speed of the vehicles. However, the diagrams relating these variables (the fundamental and speed diagrams) show some peculiarities not yet fully reproduced nor explained by mathematical models. In this paper, resting on the methods of kinetic theory, we introduce a new traffic model which takes into account the heterogeneous nature of the flow of vehicles along a road. In more detail, the model considers traffic as a mixture of two or more populations of vehicles (e.g., cars and trucks) with different microscopic characteristics, in particular different lengths and/or maximum speeds. With this approach we gain some insights into the scattering of the data in the regime of congested traffic clearly shown by actual measurements.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figure

Kinetic-controlled hydrodynamics for traffic models with driver-assist vehicles

We develop a hierarchical description of traffic flow control by means of driver-assist vehicles aimed at the mitigation of speed-dependent road risk factors. Microscopic feedback control strategies are designed at the level of vehicle-to-vehicle interactions and then upscaled to the global flow via a kinetic approach based on a Boltzmann-type equation. Then first and second order hydrodynamic traffic models, which naturally embed the microscopic control strategies, are consistently derived from the kinetic-controlled framework via suitable closure methods. Several numerical examples illustrate the effectiveness of such a hierarchical approach at the various scales.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figure