SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS FOR THE ELASTIC-DEMAND NETWORK EQUILIBRIUM PROBLEM WITH APPLICATIONS

This paper presents a general framework and a rigorous approach for th e quantitative analysis of the behavior of equilibrium hows with elast ic demand when the problem is subjected to perturbations in network ch aracteristics. Explicit expressions of the derivatives of the equilibr ium solutions with respect to a variety of parameters associated with the supply and demand functions are derived. The derivative informatio n will be utilized to predict changes in the equilibrium flow pattern and Various system performance measures when the demand and performanc e characteristics of the transportation networks are altered slightly. Three numerical examples drawn from network design, congestion pricin g and traffic equilibrium paradoxes are presented to highlight the sen sitivity analysis method and its applications. Copyright (C) 1996 Else vier Science Ltd.