Updating Time-Variant Dimension for Complex Traffic Flows in Analysis of Vehicle–Bridge Dynamic Interaction

Abstract

A rational simulation of the interactions between random traffic and bridges is significant for evaluating existing bridges’ performance. In this paper, an innovative time-variant dimension updating method (TVDUM) for random traffic and bridges is proposed for coupled vehicle and bridge dynamic interactions. A detailed procedure for the TVDUM is provided based on the traditional fully coupled vehicle–bridge dynamic system. Starting from introducing the random traffic flow simulation and establishing a typical vehicle dynamic model database, the implementation process of the TVDUM and important treatment strategies of the integrated coupled dynamic system are described in detail. The numerical case study on an existing bridge indicates that the new method has better calculation efficiency and can avoid the iterative calculation in a time step and uncertainty of computing time compared with the classic iterative method, especially for short-span and medium-span bridges.