Analysis of Vertical Dynamic Response of Simply Supported Beam Traversed by Successive Moving Loads

In this paper, The vertical vibration’s analytical expression of Euler-Bernoulli beam traveled by moving loads is used to analyze the effect factors such as vehicle speed and damping ratio. The calculating program is made with MATLAB to analyze the dynamic response of a bridge as an illustrative example. A 32 meters simply supported beam traversed by moving loads of 8 ICE3 motor cars is analyzed. The calculation results show that the maximum displacement of the bridge appears at or near the mid-span and it has nothing to do with the position of the loads. The dynamic amplification coefficient of displacement at mid-span is not linearly increased with the vehicle speed improving. The damping ratio can decrease the dynamic response of the bridge dramatically, especially at the resonance speed.