A finite element model of vehicle–bridge interaction considering braking and acceleration

This paper develops a finite element scheme to analyze vehicle–bridge dynamic responses due to vehicle braking and acceleration. In this model, an assumption is that the averaged vehicle acceleration at current time is known; so absolute vehicle displacements can be changed to relative vehicle displacements. Thus, the inertia force at the center of each vehicle mass can be generated. This scheme produces a linear and small displacement analysis. In the meantime, the semi-theoretical solution of a two-axle vehicle moving on a bridge was generated with the acceleration effect. Then, this scheme was used to validate the proposed finite element model with almost identical agreement. The most attraction of this model is that the theory and formulation are simple and can be added to standard dynamic finite element codes without difficulty.