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The Mathematical Theory of an Enhanced Nonequilibrium Traffic Flow Model

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Abstract

This paper establishes the mathematical theory of an enhanced nonequilibrium traffic flow model. The innovation of the model is that it addresses the anisotropic feature of traffic flows. We show rigorously that this new theory reduces to the celebrated LWR theory when the relaxation time goes to zero, that global solutions for this theory exist for initial data of bounded total variation under certain mild conditions, and that the solutions approach the equilibrium solutions exponentially fast. The results justify rigorously the asymptotic equivalence of the relaxation model and the equilibrium equation. Our analysis is based on a generalized Glimm scheme which incorporates the effect of the relaxation source.

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Li, T., Zhang, H.M. The Mathematical Theory of an Enhanced Nonequilibrium Traffic Flow Model. Networks and Spatial Economics 1, 167–177 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011585212670

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