Vehicle-Bridge- Interaction Analysis Using Half-Car Model

In this study, the dynamic interaction that occurs between a vehicle and a flexible structure such as a bridge, is discussed in terms of random irregularities on the road of the bridge. The simple supported bridge used in the study is modeled using the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. The vehicle body and wheels are taken into account as half vehicle model consisting of four degrees of freedom. Motion equation of the vehicle was obtained using the Lagrange method that evaluates the energy equations of the generalized coordinates. Then these equations were combined with equations representing the bridge system to obtain differential equations of the vehicle bridge interaction. This differential equations were solved using the Newmark ß integration method with a special software in MATLAB.