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Traffic may be regarded as a compressible fluid of certain In this paper a f'mite element method (FEM) ot the
density and velocity whose behaviour is described by the shock capturing type is developed and used for the numeri-
continuity equation and an equation of state (equilibrium cal solution of traffic flow problems in arterial streets by
flow-density relationship). By this method Lighthill and assuming the traffic model of LighthiU and Whitham)
Whitham I introduced the first and most widely used simple During the last 25 years the FEM has been successfully
macroscopic (continuum) model in traffic flow theory. By applied to a great variety of problems in engineering
employing analytical techniques based on the theory of science, s In this paper the method is for the first time
characteristics, Lighthill and Whitham I were able to study applied to traffic flow problems. In general, the FEM
shock wave development in highways and isolated inter- presents some distinct advantages over the f'mite difference
sections. Michalopoulos et al., 2-s using the same traffic method (FDM) such as the easy treatment of complex
model and analogous techniques were able to conside-ably geometry domains and boundary conditions, and the
extend the range of applicability of this model to a variety direct determination of the solution inside every element
of traffic flow problems, such as flow at road intersections once the solution at nodal points has been determined.
with traffic signals and platoon dynamics. Of course, these advantages are of great importance pri-
It is apparent, however, that an analytical treatment of marily in two and three spatial dimensions and not so pro-
the traffic flow problem requires a number of simplifying nounced in one-dimensional problems such as those con-
assumptions concerning the flow-density relationship as sidered here. Nevertheless, even for one-dimensional
well as the boundary and initial conditions. If a more traffic flow problems, the method can be considered at
realistic treatment of the problem, free of these limitations least as an alternative to the FDM wit h a great potential for
is desired, then use should be made of numerical techniques. extension to two dimensions. Another important feature
Michalopoulos et al. 6'7 have developed some efficient of the FEM is its applicability to both equations of the
numerical schemes for solving traffic flow problems in both conservation and the non-conservation type. This implies
highways and arterial streets. These schemes are basically that the FEM can also be successfully applied to traffic
finite difference algorithms in space and time of the 'shock problems formulated on the basis of truly dynamic con-
capturing' and 'shock fitting' type. tinuum models involving both the continuity equation,
which is of the conservation type, and the momentum
* Also of Department of Civil Engineering, University of Patras, equation, which is of the non-conservation type. 7 The most
Patras, Greece widely known finite difference algorithms, however, are
0307-904X/85/05358-07/$03.00
358 Appl. Math. Modelling, 1985, Vol. 9, October © 1985 Butterworth & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.
Analysis o f traffic flow by FEM: D. E. Beskos et aL
applicable to conservation type equations and their use with traffic flow problem in the form:
equations of the non-conservation type requires some modi-
fications which are not always possible or completely =--+u[ --2 --g=0 (4)
successful. 7 L [K] --g ~t Ko/aX
The f'mite element scheme developed here is based on
analogous schemes applied to fluid dynamics problems as where L [ ] is the differential operator:
described in Chung. 9 It consists of employing a Galerkin
finite element scheme for the space discretization in con- r.[ ]= t+us 1-2 (51
junction with a finite difference scheme for the time dis-
cretization. The resulting nonlinear system of algebraic The general formulation of the traffic flow problem then
equations is solved by a step-by-step time integration in consists of the governing nonlinear hyperbolic partial differ-
conjunction with the Newton-Raphson algorithm. The ential equation (4) def'med on the domain 0 <~x ~<L and
methodology thus developed does not contain any special 0 ~< t ~< T where L is the total length of the road and T is
feature for treating sharp shocks (shock fitting). It simply the time interval of interest, accompanied by appropriate
obtains shocks in the form of large changes of density boundary and initial conditions pertinent to the specific
between closely spaced intervals as part of the solution problem under consideration.
procedure, indicating that it is a shock capturing tech- In order to solve the general traffic flow boundary and
nique. It would be possible to supplement the proposed initial value problem by FEM the one-dimensional space
methodology with a special shock treatment mechanism domain ((3 ~<x ~<L) is divided into E finite elements con-
by introducing special finite elements with built-in dis- nected to each other at nodal points as shown in Figure la.
continuities, following the work of WeUford and Oden ~° on Each finite element e of length h has two nodes, one at each
wave propagation in solids. This would complicate the end; each node takes one value of the amplitude of the
method, however, and produce results characterized by dependent variable k (Figure lb). The dependent variable
sharp shocks which are not observable in real situations K = K(x, t) is approximated within a local element e as a
where the shocks have been smoothed out. Analogous linear function Ke:
remarks on shock capturing and shock fitting finite differ- K e = q~K~
e e a = l, 2 (6)
ence schemes can be found in Michalopoulos et al. 6
It was found necessary in this work to introduce arti- where summation convention is assumed over repeated
ficial viscosity into the formulation for convergence im- indices; the shape functinns ¢ e are given by:
provement; this is so with many other Finite difference X X
schemes used in compressible fluid dynamics. The arti- O<<.x<<.h (7)
ficial viscosity term is used to modify the value of the den- h h
sity during the computation, in a manner analogous to that and ke~ = ke(t) are the nodal amplitudes of the dependent
used in references 11 and 12 dealing with the finite ele- variable k = k(x, t). It should be noted that linear shape
ment analysis of compressible fluid flow. functions have been adopted here for simplicity. Higher
The finite element methodology developed in this paper order shape functions could also have been used with an
is illustrated by means of two numerical examples involving appropriate increase in the nodal points of every element.
traffic flow at intersections with traffic signals. Compari- The global function K for the whole set of elements can be
sons of the FEM solution are made with analytic solutions, written as the sum of all local element contributions, i.e.:
numerical solutions based on the FDM and data.
E E
e e _ ~iKi i= 1,2 . . . . . E + 1 (8)
(~aK~-
e=l e=l
Finite element formulation where K i = Ki(t ) are the global nodal amplitudes of K:
Consider the basic equations of traffic flow according to E
the mathematical model of Lighthill and Whitham, ~ i.e. the = Z ~ eAe~ i (9)
continuity equation and the equation of state in the form: e=l
q 1 K e
I 1%1
[ --x
where u and us are the flow speed and free flow speed,
respectively and Ko is the jam density. By substituting (3) b I- h "1
into (1) one can obtain the governing equation of the Figure 1 F i n i t e e l e m e n t d i s c r e t i z a t i o n in space
f
0
(L [K] --g) Oi dx = 0 (12) where the superscript n indicates the nth time step
(1 ~< n EAr). Then following reference 9 one can write
equation (16)in the form:
By using equation (5), employing the identity: [Aii + (1/2) At(CqtK~ +1 + Bq)] K~ *l
( 1 _ 2 K ~ aK ~__(K_K2~ (13) =[Aii- (1/2) t(CiitKP + B 0 ) ] & + ,xm;' (19)
-Ko/ = ax Ko / The nonlinearity of equation (19) is now treated with the
and integrating (12) by parts yields: aid of Newton-Raphson's iterative procedure. 9 The iteration
at the (r + 1) cycle for the time step (n + 1) is performed
I, K2,~ ]L [ K2) a$i d as:
f I(~idx+~lf[(K--g-o)~iJo~K--E/U x Kg + l ' r * l = K~ + l ' r - (J~+Lr)-'RT*I"r;n'° (20)
o where:
L
=&i + (1/2) At(GilKp+ , + C,iKr
- - f g¢i dx = 0 (14)
+ ai/) (21)
o
R~+Lr;n'°= [ A i i + (1/2) At(CiiiK~+ L r + Bo)]
where the dot indicates differentiation with respect to time
t. In view of (8) one has that: x K~ +1, r _ [.40 _ (1/2) At(CqlK ~' o
+ B.)] K 7" o _ AtDT'o (22)
K2=~bi~iKiKt i,j, l= l,2 . . . . . E + I (15) It should be noted that K}~'° of (22) represents the converged
solution of the previous time step and remains constant
Substitution of equation (15) into (I 4) results in: during the Newton-Raphson iterations and that K n + Lr
AqI~i + BiiKi + Ci/tKiK t = Oi (16) needed in (20) is computed with the aid of (19), i.e. from:
where: Kn+l.r = JAil + (I/2)At(CiiiK~,O)]-1
L × ([Ao - (1/2) t(ciitrl', o + ii)] K : "°
hi/=f c~i~bi dx + AtD n'° ) (23)
o Thus, finally the solution of (16) proceeds as follows:
L (1) Starting with the initial conditions Ki°'°one first com-
putes:
Bii =-- uf f -~x
~i Cki(oidx
o K/L°= [Aii+ (l/2)At(CiiiK°'° + Bii)] -1
(17)
L x { [ A i i - - (1/2) At(CorK °'° + Bq)] K ° ' °
u: ~ a¢i + AtD °'°} (24)
Ciil = KO -~x ~i~i dx
o (2) The iterative procedure then proceeds in the following
manner:
L
K2
K.I,' = K],o-- (jbo)-' R:,o;o,o
o K~ 2= K / " - (j~],)-I R},,;o,o
The vector D i in (16) and (17) is a known function o f x and etc., until one arrives at the converged solution at the rth
t since the values of K are known at the two boundary cycle for the first time step, i.e. at IK~'r+l - K l'r] ~ iS,
points x = 0 and x = L, the generation function g = g(x, t) where 6 is a small positive number (preselected tolerance)
is assumed to be given and the shape functions ¢i are given indicating that K/Lr+l ~ K] ,r.
by (7) and (9). The matrices Aii , Bii and Ciii in (17) which (3) The computations are then repeated for the next time
can be explicitly computed with the aid of (7) and (9) increment and continue in the same manner until the desired
consist of constant entries. Explicit expressions for them time T has been reached.
can be found in the Appendix. Thus, the basic traffic flow In order to improve the convergence characteristics of
problem has been formulated with the aid of the Galerkin the above algorithm, it was found necessary in the treat-
type FEM in discrete form described by the system of the ment of the present problems involving shocks to intro-
nonlinear time-dependent equation (16). duce an artificial viscosity factor/a given by:
/1 r _ fir O td = 36.3 s 38 s 32 s
Kin'new) + (1 -- (K~ r - Kn'r)]/2 (26) Yd = 146 f t 200 f t 135 f t
m
E te = 48.6 s 49 s . 50 s
where m indicates the values i + ] and i - - 1. Ye = 297 f t 310 f t 315 f t
F tf = 67.5 s 61 s 67 s
y f = 345 f t 330 f t 340 f t
Numerical examples H th = 7 5 s 75s 75s
Yh = 377 f t 410 ft 430 ft
Both analytical results and actual data were employed for
evaluating the performance of the previously described T T T ( V e h i c l a s / m i l e ) ; F D M 0(1 ) ; F D M 0(1 ) ; F D M 0(2)
FEM algorithm. The case of a coordinated link was selected T T T (Vehicles/mile) F D M 0(1 ) F D M 0(1 ) F D M 0(2)
to compare the method with analytical results, while field
data collected at an isolated intersection were used for
additional testing.
10 20 30 40 50 60 7 0 (s~=
Stop line 0( I I kB I I I I
Comparisons with analytical results q
g
Table 3 Algorithm ranking based on columns 4-6 of Table 2
N~ Nd N
OR MOE I st 2nd 3rd
,.2
co
"0 0
K (vehicles/mile) FDM 0(2) FEM FDM 0(1)
4-
121 o 0 (7.2%) (4.9%) (--)
T: Queue length (ft) FDM 0(2) FEM FDM 0(1 )
(6.9%) (19.5%) (--)
o
Queue size (vehicles) FDM 0(2) FEM FDM 0(1 )
F,t..n (30.4%) (15.3%) (--)
E N (vehicles) FDM 0(1 ) FEM FDM 0(2)
0
(12.2%) (34.4%) (--)
~'G~o~
iii
TTT (vehicle-minutes) FEM FDM 0(1 ) FDM 0(2)
o (2.3%) (0.9%) (-)
~00~
< gNNd
• Comparison studies have revealed that the FEM provides
Ii results in good agreement with analytical results and
with measured data. It appears to be slightly more accu-
~O rate than the first-order accuracy FDM and slightly less
accurate than the second-order accuracy FDM. 6
O~ • It was found that the FEM is more time-consuming than
both the first- and second-order accuracy FDMs. 6 It is
obvious that for one-dimensional traffic flow problems
the FEM is computationally less efficient than the FDM,
as there are no significant complexities in the geo-
metry or the boundary conditions.
• For more advanced traffic flow modelling involving two
dimensions and/or governing equations consisting of
both the continuity and m o m e n t u m equations, one
would expect the FEM to become more accurate and
efficient than the FDM. This assertion, however, needs
proof through further investigation.
I I I I
O0
Acknowledgement
Financial support for this study was provided by NSF
I I I I (Project No. CEE-8210189).
O~
References
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theory of traffic flow on long crowded roads', Proc. Roy. Soc.,
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2 Stephanopoulos, G., Michalopoulos, P. G. and Stephanopoulos,
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W ~ O d 1980, 14, 9-41
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< ~
~oo Res. 1981, 15B. 299-317
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interrupted traffic flow by finite difference methods', Transp.
t'N~ Res. 1984, 18B (4[5), 409--421
00'~"
,,, ~ o~ d c~
7 Michalopoulos, P. G., Beskos, D. E. and Yamauchi, Y. 'Multi-
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O'¢ 8 Zienkiewicz, O. C. 'The finite element method in engineering
tO ~
¢N¢0 I science', 3rd edn, MeGraw-HiU,New York, 1977
LU ~" tO r~ LO
O¢0OO
9 Chung, T. J. 'Finite element analysis in fluid dynamics',
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1978
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o ¢J
11 Hafez,M., South, J. and Murman, E. 'Artificial compressibility
"r" e"
E 0
Cijl = ~. C,~O-
e r Ac~i
e Ae~iA-tl
e (A3) (A6)
e=l 1 ufF--2K1--K 2 --K,-- 2Kz]~ KI}
i,j,l= 1,2 . . . . . E + 1;~,/3,'7 = 1 , 2 cefjvKfjKv = 6kool 2K1 + K2 KI+2K2J[ K2