There has been a growing interest to carry out the vehicle–track–bridge (VTB) dynamic interaction analysis using 2D or 3D finite elements based on simplified wheel–rail relationships. The simplified or elastic wheel–rail contact relationships, however, cannot consider the lateral contact forces and geometric shapes of the wheel and rails, and even the occasional jump of wheels from the rails. This does not guarantee a reliable analysis for the safety running of trains over bridges. To consider the wheel–rail constraint and contact forces, this paper proposes a versatile 3D VTB element, consisting of a vehicle, eight rail beam elements, four bridge beam elements, and continuous springs as well as the dampers between the rail and bridge girder. With the 3D VTB element matrices formulated, a procedure for assembling the interaction matrices of the 3D VTB element is presented based on the virtual work principle. The global equations of motion of the VTB interaction system are established accordingly, which can be solved by time integration methods to obtain the dynamic responses of the vehicle, track and bridge, as well as the stability and safety indices of the moving train. Finally, an illustrative example is used to verify the proposed the versatile 3D VTB element for the dynamic interactive analysis of railway bridges under moving train loads.
