Vulnerability Assessment of Multi-Level Road Networks Considering the Impact of Traffic Demand

Previous studies mainly analyzed the vulnerability of road networks based on network topology and ignored the impact of traffic demand, resulting in deviations between the results and engineering practice. Moreover, the traditional topology analysis does not accurately describe the transfer of traffic volume on different levels of roads. To build these gaps, this study develops a vulnerability assessment model considering the traffic demand. Specifically, a fundamental analysis model considering the toll characteristics of expressways is established to describe the cost on different road layers precisely and enable accurate traffic assignment. By utilizing the normalized value of the sum of incoming and outgoing traffic volumes at nodes as the node weight, the vulnerability assessment is improved for a high-quality assessment. Finally, the case results show that the proposed model is effective and more sensitive. The results of road segments on performance loss also provide useful suggestions for road disaster prevention.