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Dynamic analysis of elastic structures subjected to moving loads had been studied for quite some time while designing rail and road bridges. This problem later also gained importance in mechanical engineering applications such as the design of wood saws, machine tools, vehicle brakes etc. However, in open literature the problem of moving load applied on structures made of viscoelastic materials is very sparsely discussed.
This paper presents a technique for using the finite element package ABAQUS for analysing the dynamic response of non-linear viscoelastic beams to a moving concentrated load. The technique is illustrated and validated by applying first to a simply supported elastic beam subject to a single load moving along the beam. Subsequently, it is applied to geometrically non-linear elastic beams. Finally, it is applied to linear and non-linear viscoelastic beams. A finite element subroutine for 3-D Schapery representation of constitutive relation for nonlinear viscoelastic material is written for the purpose. The effect of speed and magnitude of the moving load on the transverse response is examined for linear elastic, linear viscoelastic, and geometrically non-linear elastic and non-linear viscoelastic cases.