Towards practical implementation of computational solution of the Kinematic -wave Model for simulating traffic-flow scenarios

Abstract

The Kinematic-wave model is one of the models proposed to simulate vehicular traffic. It has not received widespread use because of poor understanding of associated interface conditions and early use of incorrect numerical schemes used. This thesis analyzes mathematically correct boundary and interface conditions in the context of the Godunov method as the numerical scheme for the simulation software created. This thesis simulates a set of scenarios originally proposed by Ross, to verify the validity of simulation. The results of the simulation are compared against the corresponding results of Ross, and against intuitive expectation of the behavior of actual traffic under the scenarios. Our results tend either to agree with or improve upon those reported by Ross, who used alternate models.