A direct method for analyzing the vertical vehicle-structure interaction

A new method for the dynamic analysis of the vertical vehicle-structure interaction is presented. The
vehicle and structure systems can be discretized with various types of finite elements and may have any
degree of complexity. The equations of both systems are complemented with additional compatibility
equations to ensure contact between the vehicles and the structure. The equations of motion and the
compatibility equations form a single system that is solved directly, thus avoiding the iterative procedure
used by other authors to satisfy the compatibility between the vehicle and structure. For large structural
systems the proposed method is usually more efficient than those that frequently update and factorize the
system matrix. Some numerical examples have shown that the proposed formulation is accurate and
efficient.