Hydrodynamical Approach to Vehicular Flow in the Urban Street Canyon

TL;DR

This paper models vehicular flow and pollutant dispersion in urban street canyons using hydrodynamical equations, incorporating traffic control strategies to minimize ecological impact, supported by numerical simulations with real data.

Contribution

It introduces a hydrodynamical framework for urban vehicular flow and pollutant modeling, integrating traffic control optimization with variational calculus.

Findings

Hydrodynamical equations effectively describe vehicular and pollutant dynamics.

Traffic light control can minimize ecological costs.

Numerical examples validate the model with real traffic data.

Abstract

The vehicular flow in the urban street canyon is considered. The classical field description is used in the modelling of the vehicular movement and of gaseous mixture in generic urban street canyon. The dynamical variables include vehicular densities, velocities, and emissivities: of pollutants, heat and exhaust gases, as well as standard mixture components' variables: densities, velocities, temperature, pressures. The local balances' equations predict the dynamics of the complex system. The automatic control of the vehicular flow is attained by the sets of coordinated traffic lights. The automatic control is aimed at minimization of traffic ecological costs by the application of variational calculus (Lagrange's and Bolz's problems). The theoretical description is accompanied by numerical examples of computer fluid dynamics based on real traffic data.