Effects of vehicle gap changes on fuel economy and emission performance of the traffic flow in the ACC strategy

PLoS One. 2018 Jul 12;13(7):e0200110. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200110. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

This paper focuses on the effects of vehicle gap changes on fuel and emission performance of the simulated traffic flow in the adaptive cruise control (ACC) strategy. Firstly, the close correlation of vehicle gap changes and the host car's behaviors was explored with the measured car-following data. Secondly, the correlation between the host car's velocity and vehicle gap changes with different memory steps was also explored to develop the nth car's optimal velocity function. Thirdly, a microscopic traffic simulation program was created for analyzing the traffic flow evolution process and approximately estimating the fuel consumptions and exhaust emissions. As a result, it was seen that vehicle gap changes with memory significantly affect fuel economy and emission performance of the simulated traffic flow in the ACC strategy, which can result in low fuel consumptions and exhaust emissions. This study is an incremental step forward for designing the control strategy of the ACC system.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Automobile Driving / statistics & numerical data
  • Automobiles* / statistics & numerical data
  • China
  • Computer Simulation
  • Data Mining
  • Gasoline
  • Humans
  • Models, Statistical
  • Traffic-Related Pollution / analysis
  • Vehicle Emissions / analysis*

Substances

  • Gasoline
  • Vehicle Emissions

Grants and funding

The study has been funded by the Shandong Province Higher Educational Science and Technology Program (grant no. J18KA338), the National Natural Science Foundation (grant no. 51278058), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant no. 300102248503), Shandong Yingcai University Science Foundation (grant no. 17YCZDZR04), The 111 Project on Information of Vehicle- Infrastructure Sensing and ITS (grant no. B14043), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant no. 2016M602744) and Shaanxi Province Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant no. 2016BSHEDZZ132), Shandong Province undergraduate teaching reform research project (grant no. 2015M176). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.