UC Irvine

In this study, we present an equivalent second-order formulation of the LWR model based on Phillips’ model, in which the acceleration rate equals a relaxation term with an infinitesimal relaxation time. We convert the model into a continuum car-following model and demonstrate its equivalence to that of the LWR model. We demonstrate that the nonstandard second-order model is stable, but the original Phillips model is not. We derive conditions for the nonstandard model to be forward-traveling and collision-free, prove that the collision-free condition is consistent with but more general than the CFL condition, and demonstrate that only anisotropic and symplectic Euler discretization methods lead to physically meaningful solutions. Numerically, the nonstandard second-order model has the same shock and rarefaction wave solutions as the LWR model for both Greenshields and triangular fundamental diagrams; for a non-concave fundamental diagram, the collision-free condition, but not the CFL condition, yields physically meaningful results.