Developing a Hybrid Method in Analyzing the Interaction of Vehicle Bridge Systems

This paper presents a hybrid method for predicting the dynamic responses of bridge structures contemplating the interaction between vehicle–bridge systems. This method is a combination of the theoretical approach and iterative increments as commonly used numerical solutions. it has been shown, the contact force between the vehicle and bridge has a linear relationship with the displacement at the contact point. The parameters of mentioned linear relationship change during the movement of the vehicle on the bridge. In the proposed framework, each increment is initiated with the numerical and iterative parts. Then, according to the analytical part of the proposed framework, the linear relationship of contact force and displacement between the vehicle a bridge is extracted. Consequently, considering the numerical and analytical criteria, the contact displacements and contact forces are calculated. Results indicate that the proposed method offers a framework to predict the dynamic response of bridge and vehicle considering the vehicle-bridge interaction. It was concluded that this method takes a considerably lower computational effort compared to conventional iterative methods In the structures with high contact displacement between the vehicle and structure (for example in the flexible pavement), the suggested method can solve the interaction problems in a considerably lower time and computational effort.