0000000000948859
AUTHOR
Christof Liebe
Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Traffic Flow
Application of thermodynamics to traffic flow is discussed. On a microscopic level, traffic flow is described by Bando’s optimal velocity model in terms of accelerating and decelerating forces. It allows us to introduce kinetic, potential, as well as a total energy, which is the internal energy of the car system in view of thermodynamics. The total energy is however not conserved, although it has a certain value in any of the two possible stationary states corresponding either to a fixed point or to a limit cycle solution in the space of headways and velocities.
Vehicular Motion and Traffic Breakdown: Evaluation of Energy Balance
Microscopic traffic models based on follow–the–leader behaviour are strongly asymmetrically interacting many–particle systems. The well–known Bando’s optimal velocity model includes the fact that (firstly) the driver is always looking forward interacting with the lead vehicle and (secondly) the car travels on the road always with friction. Due to these realistic assumptions the moving car needs petrol for the engine to compensate dissipation by rolling friction. We investigate the flux of mechanical energy to evaluate the energy balance out of the given nonlinear dynamical system of vehicular particles. In order to understand the traffic breakdown as transition from free flow to congested t…