The article is devoted to the numerical simulation and experimental verification of a vehicle’s response to kinematic excitation caused by driving along an asphalt road. The source of kinematic excitation was road unevenness, which was mapped by geodetic methods. Vertical unevenness was measured in 0.25 m increments in two longitudinal profiles of the road spaced two meters apart with precise leveling realized by geodetic digital levels. A space multi-body computational model of a Tatra 815 heavy truck was adopted. The model had 15 degrees of freedom. Nine degrees of freedom were tangible and six degrees of freedom were intangible. The equations of motion were derived in the form of second-order ordinary differential equations and were solved numerically by the Runge–Kutta method. A custom computer program in MATLAB was created for numerical simulation of vehicle movement (eps = 2⁻⁵²). The program allowed simulation of quantities such as deflections, speeds, accelerations at characteristic points of the vehicle, and static or dynamic components of contact forces arising between the wheel and the road. The response of the vehicle (acceleration at characteristic points) at different speeds was experimentally tested. The experiment was numerically simulated and the results were mutually compared. The basic statistical characteristics of experimentally obtained and numerically simulated signals and their power spectral densities were compared.

In modern industry, heavy traditional materials are being substituted with light and strong fibre-reinforced polymer composite materials. Bridges and railroads made of composite laminates are considerably affected by traffic loads. Therefore, it is very important to analyse this effect which would find practical applications in engineering designs. This paper explains the theoretical formulation that governs the dynamic response of a composite beam subjected to a moving load. The governing equations for the dynamic effect on the laminated composite bridge beam are explained here. The main theories in the micro–macro modelling of composite laminates are also described in the paper. Within the macro modelling, the Classical Laminate and Shear Deformation Laminate Theory of beams are presented. The symmetric cross-ply laminated bridge, made of boron/epoxy is under consideration. The computational two-dimensional model of the vehicle is adopted. The governing equations for the dynamic effect on the laminated composite bridge beam are explained. The calculation of the time response of the bridge for the characteristic speeds of the vehicle is performed in the environment of the MATLAB software. The maximum dynamic magnification factor for the dynamic analysis of a composite beam is found.

The presented article deals with the analysis of frequency composition of vehicle response while driving along the road. It provides a theoretical basis for the calculation of frequency spectra based on the fast Fourier transform. It describes the experiment performed with the vehicle and the equipment used at the experiment. It calculates auto and cross power spectral densities from acceleration records at characteristic points of the vehicle and draws conclusions for the needs of practice.

The article is dedicated to a numerical and experimental analysis of the basic natural frequencies of a bridge structure. It presents the results obtained using the finite element method and the frequency response functions applied in two variants, using the lumped mass model and the model with a continuously distributed mass, as well as the results obtained using the energy method. It describes a simple experiment to measure the response of a bridge to random excitations from rail traffic, and compares the values of selected natural frequencies obtained by numerical and experimental methods. It offers engineers alternative solutions for their applications in engineering practice. It tries to bring a complicated theory closer to engineering practice in the simplest possible way and, at the same time, arouses interest in its deeper study.

Vehicle –bridge interaction is an interesting problem solved by engineers all over the world. Computing models of vehicles are usually created as systems composed by discrete members as mass points, spring and damper members. Computing models of bridges can be created as systems with continuously distributed mass or as systems with lumped masses. Some possible problems with application of such computing models are explained in the paper. Similar problem must be solved in the case of finite element bridge computing model.