DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF BRIDGE-VEHICLE INTERA CTION OF HIGHWAY BRIDGES - 1 - NUMERICAL ASPECTS

In this paper, a general and efficient procedure for the dynamic analy sis of road bridges is presented, that takes into account bridge-vehic le interaction and the road profile in a realistic way. With this appr oach, the bridge structure can be modeled with a tridimensional finite element method using shell and beam elements. The vehicle model is re presented using a discrete method based an Lagrange equations. This me thod uses the modal superposition technique for the bridge components, with a correction for the displacement based on the method of modal a cceleration. The Newmark-beta method is used to solve the movement equ ations of each bridge and vehicles system and the solution is obtained through an iterative process of the interactive forces between the br idge and the vehicles. A simple academic example is presented to show the validity of the proposed algorithm.