Copyright © IFAC Transportation Systems,

Tianjin, PRC, 1994

SIMULATION MODEL OF TRANSPORTATION

SYSTEM

Y . GUO and P. HU

Southwest JiaotOAg U.iver~,. College of ECOAomic Maaagemeat. Cheagdu 610031.

ChiAa

Abstract. Control and evaluation of transportation and traffic system by using

simulation and combining with optimization method are significant researches. By
means of this research method. a real transport system mixed into a traffic system is
supervised and optimized, and the influences among varied vehicle flows are
determined. The method of combining simulation with optimization and process of
applying simulation to transportation and traffic system are discussed.

Key Words. Transportation system, Traffic system, Simulation, Vehicle flow,

Running and losing time ,Optimization and control.

1. INTRODUCTION there is only a single-track railway, some

The transportation and traffic system is a
kind of dynamic systems containing a large
of uncertain factors. For this kind of
systems, using simulation method to
demonstrate its movement state and
calculate the various time parameters of
vehicles, it becomes possible to determine
the various influences and the flow of
various vehicles, deduce the possible delay
and block in advance, improve and plan
the road conditions, and so on.
The simulation applied to transport or
traffic systems generally goes through
following stages: construction of model,
opening up of program, debugging and
operating of computer, analysis and
verification of results. Here the process
and method are discussed by applying
SIMAN to a practical case.
2. CONSTRUCTION OF THE MODEL
Here, consider a material transport system
from a digging site to a building site. The
system contains a highway subsystem A
and a railway subsystem B. In B, where
stations are set up for opposite trains
giving a way each other; in the railway
section between two adjacent stations only
permit one train to pass, and the train
could neither stop nor come back in the
section; materials are loaded into trains at
digging site, and then are transported to a
port, where materials are discharged. In
A, the transportation is done by tip trucks
from the port to a building site; the width
of this main road is irregular, some short
sections permit two or more vehicles to
pass, but some sections only permit one to
pass J some branch ways come into the
main road J the tip trucks get into the main
road from a special branch way, and mix
up the general traffic flow J so the
conditions of the main road become worse.
The constitution and running principles are
depicted in Fig. 1. In there, the highway
is simplified for seeing and drawing it
easy, in fact it is more irregular and
crooked, and contains more branch ways
(for the sake of common use, the
conditions of road, such as widths of the
different road sections, quantity and
locations of branch ways, and bending
degrees and number of bending courses,

513
and so on, are determined by interactive
mode). At the port, digging site and
building site, the loading and discharging
capabilities are fixed. Of course, according
to different practical circumstances the
capability is changeable.
building site railway
J 0 Li&W& .ot.
Dddigo 0 0 t
"[Jt
mam~ W
I ~ ~ranch way
Fig. 1. System sketch map
Some basic assumptions of the system are
given as the follows:
Road. According to the width and
visibility of the road, and whether having
or not a place of avoidance, divide main
road into many short sections of 30-l00m,
and regard every section as a service
window, then, it is possible to transform
various flows of vehioles into the straight-
row waiting service model. When a section
permits two opposite vehicles to pass at
same time, two service windows are set up
for this section.
Vehicles. Divide vehicles into 6 kinds:
each direction has 3 kinds of large-scale
vehicles, small-scale vehicles and tip
trucks. The tip trucks go to and fro
between the port and building site, general
vehicles arrive randomly and go through
the process: flowing into, running,
flowing out and disappearing. When
arriving the entrance of every short section
each vehicle must first scan the adjacent
sections in front and in behind, so that it
can be known that where there are other
vehicles, what kinds of vehicles they are
and what their succeeding states are, then
the vehicle can just take its the next state:
continually going, slowly running,
stopping or moving back. These situations
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are depicted in Fig. 2
foP
DJ~
come back
Fig. 2. Rules of opposite vehicles
Running Rules. In addition to the rules
shown in Fig. 2, any vehicle (including
train) follows the first coming-first
Leaving rule. If two opposite vehicles get
respective entrances (or stations) at same
time, and will meet on the way if they
continually run, the loading one takes
precedence. The speed of each kind of
vehicles is constant, but the one of
different kind of vehicles is not same.
When it is possible, only small-scale cars
can surpass other kinds. Service time on
service window follows general rule of
straight-row waiting service model: using
nurumum automobile-head interval to
calculate it. When capacity of the road or
section is exceeded, any vehicle could not
come into the road or section, and is only
in a waiting situation.
The simulation goals are follows: forecast
various time parameters and practical flows
of each kind of vehicles J determine the
influences among different vehicle flows J
select optimum scheme of the quantity of
tip trucks and trains disposed in the
system J calculate loss time of transport
vehicles and give a direction of improving
road condition.
3. DEVELOPMENT &. COMPENDIUM
OF PROGRAM
SIMAN/CINEMA are used to simulate
the systematic movement. The basic
consideration, characteristics, and
optimization method are follows I
Experiment frame is separated from
system model. This means one system
model can suit to many experiment
cnditions , that is , the condition of
experiment is changeable but the system
model may be fixed. As a result it is easy
for selecting optimum scheme by changing
different experiment frames, and
comparing their results, meantime,
because of the flexibility of the experiment
frame, the program can be used in a broad
sense.
U se of control method of event-interval
time. Since the road is divided into a few
of short sections, and each section can be
seen as a service window, the straight-row
waiting service model can be used, that is,
the control method of event-interval time
is adopted to control and dispatch the flow
and movement of various vehicles.
M ixed use of process orientation and event
orientation. According to the respective
characteristics of the system's different
parts the different orientations of drawing
up the program are adopted. For example,
at the port, digging site and building site
the disperse process orientation is used to
record loading and discharging times, and
to describe waiting process J in the part of
vehicle transportation the event orientation
is applied to write down the movement
situation J further, FORTRAN user
subprogram is put in to calculate various
time parameters and to control vehicle
flow.
Consideration of some transition
phenomena. Various transition phenomena
are described by changing and tracing the
distribution of vehicle flow. The transition
phenomena mean concentration and
reduction of vehicles at the start and end as
well as at the noon break of every day,
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and so on.
M ethod of selecting transport schemes. By
means of changing experiment conditions,
specially, by changing disposed amount of
transportation vehicles, and combining
with 2h method, it becomes possible for
selecting the optimum scheme (it is
impossible only to rely on simulation
method). The process is proceeded as
follows (just take tip trucks as a
example) :
First, give a possible range of quantity of
tip trucks by rough computation, assume it
is from S1 to ~ (S1 <~) J Then, make ho =
131 and take ho as a experiment condition,
and proceed to simulate J if it is a feasible
solution, check whether can make S1
smaller, if it can, reset S1, othervise ho =
I3I is a best selection J if not, take hI = ~
and h = (ho + hI )/2, and put h into
experiment frame again. Next, if the
scheme is ok, take hI =h, othervise ,let ho
=h, then set h= (ho+h l )/2, and put h
as a simulation condition again. Continue
this process until hI - ho < 1, then, h is
optimum disposition amount of
transportation vehicles. This procedure is
carried out by FORTRAN subprogram.
In correspondence with the real system,
the program is divided into two
subprograms of highway and railway, two
parts are conjunctive as well as
independent. The former has general
significance for dispatching traffic and
transportation on highway where the
blocking and delaying phenomena often
happen. The later can be applied to
common situation of single-track
transportation. By means of the program,
the running and delaying time parameters
of vehicles and related cost of the transport
can be understood in advance, through
showing with cartoon by CINEMA various
phenomena and states can be directly
perceived through the senses, and the
improvement plan about road can also be
worked out. On the basis of the mentioned
above, the evaluation and optimization as
well as control for the movement of the
system can be carried out, and the control
of various vehicle flows becomes possible.
4. OPERATION &. V ARIFICATION OF for avoiding opposite vehicle J and the flow
THE PROGRAM means the probability distribution of
vehicles.
The system model is designed into common
use program by putting up some switches
Table 1 Main input data
that are used to match various different
actual circumstances. The simulation is
carried out through inputting a initial Items Contents
scheme obtained by hand-calculating, then (1) (2) (3)
output results and movement situation sections : code length width
shown by cartoon are analysed and location capacity bent
evaluated, according to this analysis, the branch
code flow width
disposition condition is improved, and the way:
location capaCity bent
simulation is run again, repeat this process main
flow length width
of inputting new scheme, analysing results road:
location capacity bent
and improving experiment condition, until
avoidance: have have not width
optimum scheme is determined. The
process is shown as below (see Fig. 3) : location capacity
speed : train tip-truck
small- car large-vehicle
loading- port digging -site
input ......-~ system I--~ computer capability: building-site
model running loading
train tip-truck
amount:
disposing
train tip-truck
amount:
result others : other-rules
analysis

The main output data related to various

Fig. 3. Optimization process time parameters are shown in table 2.

The step and method of scheme improving Table 2 Main output data
in Fig. 3 have been discussed above, it is
automatically proceeded by a computer. Of
course, decision maker can join the process Items Contents (tim and ray)
(1) (2) (3)
of improving scheme by the interactive
mode of person-computer. vehicles-
small: running waiting ray
In order to expand the practicality of the large: running waiting ray
program, all real conditions and train : running waiting ray
restrictions (for exam pie, the conditions tip-truck: running waiting ray
and capacity of the road, the random slow run: location times time
distribution of vehicle flow, the loading come-back: location times time
and discharging capabilities, and the rules avoidance: location times time
of system, and so on), can be taken as
stopping: location times time
input data. The main input data in the
window: service free ray
system are shown in table 1.
station: waiting free ray
dig. site: waiting discharge load
In table 1, the bent means the quantity of
winding courses and the bending degrees J bui. site: waiting discharge load
the width means the different widths of port: waiting discharge load
irregular road section J the avoidance others : various total amount
implicates whether the road has the place

516
According to the output data as mentioned
in table 2, following aspects can be
evaluated I
The traffic and transportation situations as
well as vehicle and road situations J the
influence of each kind of vehicles upon the
others J the reasons of bringing about loss
times J the situation of transportion cost J
the direction and method of the
improvements of road and vehicle
situations
A t last, the program and model have been
verified. The identity of the program with
real system is the most important point of
simulation, and it is called first rule of
simulation. For verifying this identity the
following methods are often adopted I (a)
U se tracing function to test the correctness
of the program J (b) Compare model with
the practice by using animated cartoon
function to show motion situation J ( c )
Compare the simulation results with
statistical results J (d) Use theoritic
analysis to verify the simulation results J
(e) Open varied program to compare with
each other. Here, joint use of method (a)
and ( b) is adopted to guarantee the
correctness of the model, and further, the
experiential formula is used to verify
simulation results. The formula is
W +
= {(1-g)/[2(1-p)J (plg)/[2SC
(g-p) J-O. 65(p Ig )ezp [4/(3 +
5g) J
1[(SCg)ezp(2/3)J}C
Here, W is average loss time in highway,
S is saturated traffic flow, r is traffic flow
of running into highway, then p is rlS, C
is signle cycle, d is green signle time, then
g is d/c.
Through verification the model is proved
tallying with the practice.
517
5. CONCLUSION
The method of combining simulation with
optimization described in the paper has
been proved to be very effective.
Althrough, in the example demonstrated
above the control and optimization object is
only a kind of special vehicle flow
(transport flow), if take traffic vehicle
flow as other kind or several kinds of
special flow, it is suitable to a traffic
system or mixed system of traffic and
transportation to control and optimize
verious flows.
6. REFERENCES
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Concepts for Advanced Simulation
Methodologies ,Simulation, 32,69-82.
Law, A. and kelton, D. (1982).
Simulation M od eling and Analysis,
McGraw Hill, New York.
Webster, F. V. (1958). Traffic
SignalSettings. Road Re::earch
TecbicalPaper, No. 39.
Gross, D. and Harris, C. M. (1974)
Fundamentals of Queueing Theory. John
Wiley &. Sons.
Haight, F. A. ( 1963). Mathematical
Theories of Traffic Flow. AcademicPress.
Balci, O. and Sargent, R. G. (1984a). A
Bibliography on Credibility, Assessment
and Validation of Simulation and
Mathematical Models. Sim u letter , Vol. 15,
PP I 15-27.
Balci, O. and Sargent, R. G. (1984b).
Validation of Simulation Modle ViaSimult
aneous Confidence Intervals. American
Journal of M athematical and M anag ement
Science, Vol. 4, No. 3 and 4, pp: 375-
406.