Induced vibration of bridges traversed by moving vehicles

An investigation into the dynamic performance of a suspension bridge carrying a moving vehicle has been carried out. The vehicle is considered here as a "half-car" model traveling at a constant speed. It has been also assumed that the bridge obeys the Euler- Bernoulli beam theory of vibration with general boundary conditions. However, the computer simulation model presented here is only for the case of a beam with freely hinged end conditions. Results obtained from the numerical solutions of the governing differential equations indicate a close agreement, for an extreme case, with that reported in the literature. Furthermore, the effect of vehicle speed on the maximum dynamic deflection of the bridge is of much interest to bridge designers, and hence, an estimation of the critical speed of the moving vehicle is presented.