Two-Level Full Factorial Design Approach for the Analysis of Multi-Lane Highway Section under Saturated and Unsaturated Traffic Flow Conditions

Hamad Almujibah (), Afaq Khattak, Saleh Alotaibi, Raed Alahmadi, Adil Elhassan, Abdullah Alshahri and Caroline Mongina Matara
Additional contact information
Hamad Almujibah: Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia
Afaq Khattak: College of Transportation Engineering, Tongji University, 4800 Cao’an Highway, Shanghai 201804, China
Saleh Alotaibi: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering—Rabigh Branch, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Raed Alahmadi: Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Al-Baha University, Al-Baha P.O.Box 1988, Saudi Arabia
Adil Elhassan: Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia
Abdullah Alshahri: Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia
Caroline Mongina Matara: Department of Civil and Resource Engineering, Technical University of Kenya, Haile Sellasie Avenue, Nairobi P.O. Box 52428-00200, Kenya

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-14

Abstract: Oversaturation of highways occurs due to their inadequate assessment and design. In this paper, we propose both a mathematical queuing model and a Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) framework based on Newell’s triangular flow-density relationship for the performance analysis of a multi-lane highway section. The proposed framework is a finite capacity queuing system, which captures an increase in the flow with the vehicle density up to the capacity of the section in an unsaturated condition and a decrease in the flow in the case of a saturated condition, depicting the actual traffic conditions on the highway section. First, the Birth–Death Process is used to build the mathematical queuing model (BDP), and the average number of vehicles (average queue length) and blocking probability on the highway section are estimated. Then, the accuracy of the mathematical queuing model is verified by the proposed DES framework. The “significance and effects” of different design factors are evaluated using the two-level full factorial design technique. The analysis of the experimental results reveals that the length of the highway section and the number of lanes are the most significant factors affecting the average queue length and blocking probability, while the jam density only has a significant effect on the average queue length and does not affect the blocking probability. In case of a two-way interaction, the combined effect of the “length-lanes” significantly affects the average queue length. In the end, a multiple-factor linear regression model is also developed for the prediction of the average number of vehicles on the highway section based on the design factors.

Keywords: multi-lane highway; mathematical queuing model; Discrete-Event Simulation; flow–density relationship; two-level full factorial design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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