Nonlinear analysis of a continuum traffic flow model with consideration of the viscous effect.

In this paper, the nonlinear analysis of a viscous continuum traffic flow model is studied. The stability condition of the viscous continuum model is given by using the linear analysis method. The Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) equation is derived to describe the traffic jams. The effect of the viscous term is investigated by numerical simulations. The results show that the existence of the viscous term induces oscillation of traffic flow and the amplitude of the oscillation increases with increasing the coefficient of the viscous term. It is also found that the local clusters are compressed by increasing the coefficient of the viscous term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]