AN IMPROVED NUMERICAL APPROACH FOR DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF BRIDGES TO MOVING VEHICLES . DEVELOPMENTS IN STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING. PROCEEDINGS OF THE FORTH RAIL BRIDGE CENTENARY CONFERENCE, HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY, ENDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, AUGUST 21-23, 1990. VOLUMES 1 AND 2

A general algorithm is developed to study the transient response of highway bridge structures due to traversing heavy vehicles. The approach is based on a combined structural impedance and finite element methods and accounts for the complete vehicle-bridge dynamic interaction. Thin plate theory is assumed for the bridge deck. The predicted response shows good agreement with the available experimental results. A parametric study over a wide spectrum of velocities and mass ratios indicates that there are three critical frequency ranges: a sub-critical, a critical, and a super-critical region. The vehicle mass inertia is more pronounced in the super-critical region where the transient deflection of the bridge propagates in a wave-like manner. (Author/TRRL)