Hyperbolic phase transitions in traffic flow. (English) Zbl 1037.35043

Colombo, Rinaldo M.

SIAM J. Appl. Math. 63, No. 2, 708-721 (2002).

The author studies the phase transition problem within the traffic flow modelled by a \(2 \times 2\) system of hyperbolic conservation laws. The coupling is represented by a free boundary where the phase transition takes place. The global solvability of the Riemann problem is proven. Further, the author studies the global (in time) solvability of the Cauchy problem. Its global solvability is obtained without any assumption about small initial data or on the number of phase transitions.

Reviewer: Mária Lukáčová (Hamburg)

MSC:

35L65	Hyperbolic conservation laws
90B20	Traffic problems in operations research
35L45	Initial value problems for first-order hyperbolic systems

Keywords:

macroscopic vehicular traffic models; Riemann problem; global solvability