A General Simulation Framework for Modeling and Analysis of Heavy-Duty Vehicle Platooning

Platooning heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) on a highway is a method for improving energy and transport efficiency. On one hand, HDV platoon driving in small intervehicle distances could increase highway capacity; on the other hand, HDVs traveling in small intervehicle distances experience significant air-drag reduction and, therefore, improve fuel efficiency. However, although the majority of research has been conducted on the development of platoon systems, very few studies have focused on quantification of the impacts of HDV platooning on traffic flow. This paper initializes a simulation framework to facilitate the study of HDV platooning and establishes the corresponding concept and operations. The longitudinal driving behaviors of HDV platoons are modeled in detail, considering the acceleration capability of an HDV. The proposed framework is applied on three experimental cases: the first case is to study the impacts of HDV platooning on traffic flow and the second and third cases are about the influence of traffic on HDV platoon formation. In the first case, simulation outcomes show that the increasing percentage of HDV platooning in traffic flow generally results in more dramatic improvements on traffic efficiency, while preserving traffic safety for passenger vehicles. In the second and third cases, for the HDV platoon formation, deceleration of the first HDV to a low speed during platoon formation will increase the formation time to a large extent in medium and heavy traffic.