A Comparative Study of Two Different Wheel Load Models Used for the Estimation of Dynamic Responses of Bridges

Dynamic analysis of bridges under moving point loads is carried out in this paper. Two different wheel load models, model 1 with uniform space intervals and model 2 with non-uniform space intervals, in this study. Bridge responses due to single and multiple moving point loads are compared. Responses for both resonance and cancellation speeds are also estimated. Effects of damping, number of moving loads and their speed on the dynamic responses of the bridge using these two models are investigated. The objective is to make a comparative study of the two different wheel load models in terms of accuracy of the responses and computational easiness.