Development of Advanced Traffic Flow Models and Implementation in Parallel Processing, Phase II (9/15/92-9/15/93)

In this report, five high-order continuum traffic flow models are compared: Payne's model; Papageorgiou's model; the semi-viscous model and the viscous model as well as a proposed high-order model, and the simple continuum model. The stability of the high-order models is analyzed and the shock structure investigated in all models. In addition, the importance of the proper choice of finite-difference method is addressed. For this reason, three explicit finite-difference methods for numerical implementation, namely, the Lax method, the explicit Euler method and the upwind scheme with flux vector splitting, are discussed. The test with hypothetical data and the comparison of numerical results with field data suggest that high-order models implemented through the upwind method are better than the simple continuum model. The proposed high-order model appears to be more accurate than the other high-order models