Vulnerability Assessment for Cascading Failure in the Highway Traffic System

Han Liu,Jian Wang

doi:10.3390/su10072333

Abstract

Vulnerability assessment is of great significance to highway traffic system. As the widespread cascading failure may cause serious damage, factor identification is necessary to improve the security level of highway system. In this paper, the Dematel method is applied to identify the vulnerability priorities of important factors, and a new assessment method for highway system vulnerability is presented by considering system cascading failure. The traffic allocation and reallocation are then optimized under user equilibrium assignment model in different scenarios. Finally, the methodology is applied to the Heilongjiang highway network and the results shows that vulnerable sections in highway networks can be determined efficiently in our proposed process.

Highlights

In China, the highway traffic system provides a comfortable and speedy transport function to all citizens, trade and industry nationwide
In order to implement suitable policy to reduce the serious loss caused by congestion effects and delays, there is a need for an assessment of the highway traffic system vulnerability
Transportation vulnerability is fit for traffic network analysis because it considers the probability and the consequences of disasters. vulnerability can be regarded as an essential indication of the highway traffic system prone to cascading failures

Summary

Introduction

In China, the highway traffic system provides a comfortable and speedy transport function to all citizens, trade and industry nationwide. The methods of assessment for the transport system vulnerability can be divided into two categories: software simulation methods and mathematical modeling methods. Mathematical modeling methods assess the vulnerability and identify the vulnerable sections of transport systems by constructing mathematical models. A complex transportation system vulnerability model is established by combining fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and the maximum entropy principle [13]. Despite all the efforts in the above areas, no previous study on the highway vulnerability assessment has captured the system cascading failure factors based on general method like Dematel method. In this study we using Dematel method to assess the vulnerability of system cascading failure, and presents a user equilibrium assignment model to optimize the traffic allocation and reallocation.

Vulnerability Factor Structure

Vulnerability Assessment System Establishment

Vulnerability Assessment Process

Case Study

Conclusions