An Efficient Dispersion Model for Control of Emission Levels in the Vicinity of Freeways

Greenhouse gasses emitted by vehicles on a freeway displace to the area downwind of the freeway with potential health risks as a result [1]. In order to predict and control the distribution of pollutants towards target areas near highways, such as hospitals, schools, and residences, a model could be used. Multiple authors have proposed so-called emission dispersion models, but none is yet suited for on-line control of freeway networks. This is due to high computational costs, inapplicability in constantly changing traffic networks, or deviating purposes of the models. This work proposes a new dispersion model that is able to model the distribution of pollutant gasses in the vicinity of a freeway and that is applicable in real-time traffic control. The proposed model, the Line Source Gaussian Puff (LSGP) model, is a modification of the existing Gaussian puff model to make it suitable for dispersion modeling for freeway sections. This is done by implementing line sources instead of point sources. The results of the case study show that the new model is able to minimize the amount of pollutant gasses nearby a freeway with a low computational complexity in a model predictive control scheme.