Microsimulation Framework to Explore Impact of Truck Platooning on Traffic Operation and Energy Consumption : Development and Case Study

Cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) systems have the potential to improve traffic flow and energy consumption efficiency, but these effects are challenging to estimate. This report presents the development of a micro-simulation model to represent these impacts for heavy trucks using CACC when they share a freeway with manually driven passenger cars. The simulation incorporates automated truck following models which have been derived from experimental data recorded on heavy trucks driven under CACC, adaptive cruise control (ACC), and conventional cruise control (CC). The simulation includes other behavioral models for lane changing, lane change cooperation and lane use restrictions for trucks to better capture realworld traffic dynamics. The developed simulation model was used to conduct a case study for a 15-mile urban freeway corridor with heavy truck traffic and significant congestion. Effects of truck CACC on traffic operation and energy consumption were studied. Simulation results show that truck CACC improved traffic operations for trucks in terms of Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), average speed and flow rate. In addition, truck CACC did not adversely affect passenger car operations and in some locations it even produced considerable improvements in the general traffic conditions. A procedure was developed based on the Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) to estimate energy savings for in-platoon trucks. MOVES was re-calibrated using experimental data; and the calibrated MOVES was used to estimate energy saving rates for conditions that have not been covered in the experimental data, but that may occur in a simulation. The procedure was integrated with the microsimulation to study the same 15-mile urban freeway corridor. Results showed that energy consumption per VMT decreased for trucks. The energy consumption decrease originates only partially from aerodynamic drag reduction but primarily from congestion reduction due to platooning.