Vehicle strip element in the analysis of stiffened plate under realistic moving loading

Abstract

In this article, a new vehicle strip element is proposed for a vehicle–bridge interaction modelling. Finite strip method principle is applied on the vehicle dynamic system in order to model and couple vehicle with the structure, which is discretised with flat shell strip elements. Vehicle degrees of freedom are transformed and embedded into the structural ones, such that any new conditions or model changes can be easily integrated. Combined with the shell finite strip it enabled observing all degrees of freedom of the structure and the vehicle, reducing modelling and calculation time and effort in the same time. A full vertical vehicle model with nine degrees of freedom is adopted here. The bridge is modelled as a simply supported stiffened plate with use of a flat shell strip elements. The main benefit of the vehicle strip element is possibility to analyse vehicle–structure interaction in a greater detail. This resulted in more realistic and comprehensive analysis of a bridge under the moving loading. Such realistic examples of bridge analysis are rare in literature due to the large effort they require using standard finite elements. A parametric study is made to compare the vehicle models with different level of complexity and to enquire the relationship between model simplification and the reliability of results. In contrast to beam or plate models, application of the flat shell strip element enabled the analysis with the realistic bridge cross section.