Exploring peculiarities of traffic flows with a viscoelastic model

In this paper, a visco-elastic traffic flow model is described and applied to explore peculiarities of traffic flows on a loop road with ramp effects numerically. Based on different expressions for traffic pressure, sound speed and relaxation time, the viscoelastic model is derived from mass and momentum conservations and a linear viscoelastic constitutive relation. Numerical simulations of loop traffic flows have been carried out, with the ramp flow rate being assumed to be randomly dependent on the local main flow at the intersection. The results revealed that the on-ramp effect can cause the occurrence of traffic shock waves, the off-ramp effect can lead to the decrease of traffic density on the loop road. The viscoelastic effect does cause the significant changes of traffic flow pattern, indicating that self-organisation of loop traffic is a crucial impacting feature.