• DOI:10.1103/PhysRevE.53.2366
• Corpus ID: 7322762

Gas-kinetic derivation of Navier-Stokes-like traffic equations.

@article{Helbing1996GaskineticDO,
  title={Gas-kinetic derivation of Navier-Stokes-like traffic equations.},
  author={Helbing},
  journal={Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics},
  year={1996},
  volume={53 3},
  pages={
          2366-2381
        }
}

• Helbing
• Published 1 March 1996
• Computer Science
• Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics

Macroscopic traffic models have recently been severely criticized to base on lax analogies only and to have a number of deficiencies. Therefore, this paper shows how to construct a logically consistent fluid-dynamic traffic model from basic laws for the acceleration and interaction of vehicles. These considerations lead to the gas-kinetic traffic equation of Paveri-Fontana. Its stationary and spatially homogeneous solution implies equilibrium relations for the `fundamental diagram', the variance-density relation, and other quantities which are partly difficult to determine empirically.
Paveri-Fontana's traffic equation allows the derivation of macroscopic moment equations which build a system of non-closed equations. This system can be closed by the well proved method of Chapman and Enskog which leads to Euler-like traffic equations in zeroth-order approximation and to Navier-Stokes-like traffic equations in first-order approximation. The latter are finally corrected for the finite space requirements of vehicles. It is shown that the resulting model is able to withstand the above mentioned criticism.