A Multi-Point Tire Model for Studying Bridge–Vehicle Coupled Vibration

The contact between a vehicle tire and the road surface has been usually assumed as a single-point contact in the numerical simulation of vehicle–bridge interacted vibrations. In reality, the tire contacts the road surface through a patch instead of a single point. According to some recent studies, the single-point tire model may overestimate the dynamic amplification of bridge responses due to vehicle loadings. A new tire model, namely, the multi-point tire model, is therefore proposed in this paper with the purpose of improving the accuracy of numerical simulation results over the single-point model, while maintaining a certain level of simplicity for applications. A series of numerical simulations are carried out to compare the effect of the proposed tire model with those of the existing single-point model and disk model on the bridge dynamic responses. The proposed tire model is also verified against the field test results. The results show that the proposed multi-point tire model can predict the bridge dynamic responses with better accuracy than the single-point model, especially under distressed bridge deck conditions, and is computationally more efficient and simpler for application than the disk model.