Virtual functions of the space–time finite element method in moving mass problems

Classical time integration schemes fail in vibration analysis of complex problems with moving concentrated parameters. Moving mass problems and moving support problems belong to this group. Commercial systems of dynamic simulations do not support such an analysis. Moreover, the classical finite element method with the Newmark-type time integration method does not allow us to obtain convergent results at all. The reason lies in the impossibility of full mathematical consideration of the time integration stage and the analysis of inertial terms of a travelling mass. Both of them, unfortunately, are decoupled. In this paper we propose an efficient and exact numerical approach to the problem by using the space–time finite element method. We derive characteristic matrices of the discrete element of the string and the Bernoulli–Euler beam that carry the concentrated mass. We present four types of virtual functions in time and we apply two of them to the practical analysis. Displacements in time obtained numerically are compared with semi-analytical results. Almost perfect coincidence proves the efficiency of the approach.