Numerical Studies of Vibration of Four-Span Continuous Plate with Rails Excited by Moving Car with Experimental Validation

The vibration of a four-span continuous plate with two rails on top and four extra elastic supports excited by a moving model car is studied through numerical simulations and experiments. Modal testing is carried out to identify the Young’s moduli of the plate material and the rail material. Shell elements and beam elements are adopted for the plate and the rails of their Finite Element (FE) model, respectively. An offset is required to connect the rails and the plate in the FE model and the offset ratio of the shell element is updated to bring the numerical frequencies of the structure (plate with rails) closest to its experimental frequencies. Modal Superposition (MS) method with numerical modes of the structure and an iterative method are combined to predict the vibration of the structure subjected to the moving car. The displacements of four points of the plate are measured during the crossing of the car and compared with predicted results. The two sets of results agree well, which validates the model of the system. Parametric analysis is then made using the validated system model.