Study on Vehicle Fuel Consumption and Exhaust Emissions Based on a New Viscous Macroscopic Traffic Flow Model

Based on a conserved higher-order traffic flow model (CHO model), we propose a new viscous macroscopic traffic flow model taking into account the diffusion effect in traffic. The model can reasonably smooth the shock wave so that the acceleration is maintained in a reasonable range. To balance the computational efficiency and accuracy, this viscous macroscopic traffic flow model is integrated with the microscopic vehicle fuel consumption and emission models to estimate vehicle fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. The local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) method is used to solve the viscous model, and the simulation results are inputted into the microscopic models to calculate vehicle fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. Numerical results illustrate that the proposed viscous model is reasonable and that the designed scheme is feasible and effective. Moreover, we provide concrete suggestions for controlling vehicle fuel consumption and exhaust emissions.