Investigation of Traffic Oscillation Suppression by Periodic-Configuration Vehicular Platoon

To mitigate traffic oscillation in mixed traffic flow environments, which reduces road capacity and may lead to traffic accidents, this article innovatively proposes a periodic-configuration vehicular platoon to enhance traffic stability, inspired by the vibration attenuation properties of periodic structures. First, the vehicular platoon model is developed based on the periodic structure principle, and the lumped mass method is applied to derive the platoon spacing transfer matrix. Second, the band gap range is calculated based on the common traffic oscillation frequency by appropriately designing the period parameters in the periodic-configuration vehicular platoon. Additionally, the influence of these period parameters on the band gap range is analyzed. Finally, simulation experiments are conducted to analyze the propagation characteristics of traffic oscillations within the platoon, and the relative position diagrams of vehicles in the platoon are obtained. To validate the effectiveness of the periodic-configuration vehicular platoon in mitigating traffic oscillations, a comparative analysis of traffic oscillation suppression is performed between periodic and non-periodic-configuration platoons. The results indicate that, for a vehicular platoon consisting of twenty vehicles, the proposed periodic-configuration platoon can suppress the propagation of traffic oscillations, and the suppression effect is up to 65%. The periodic-configuration vehicular platoon can adjust control parameters for specific frequencies of traffic oscillations to achieve improved traffic flow.