This paper presents a computational frame work to investigate the influence of support settlement on vehicle-bridge interaction (VBI) of high speed rails. To take into account the influence of support settlement on bridge response, the total response of the bridge is decomposed into the static response due to support settlement and the dynamic component caused by inertial effect of bridge vibration. For simply supported bridge, an analytical solution of static displacement of the bridge under support movement is presented by ex-erting the support displacements on the beam statically. Then the dynamic response of the vehicle/bridge coupling system is solved by Galerkin’s method and computed using iterative method. Numerical results indi-cate that the influence of support settlement is generally small on the response of the simply supported bridge. By parametric study of various ground settlement profiles, the concave-up type of support settlement may lead the vertical response of the moving train to amplify drastically. Finally, the influence of support settle-ment due to ground subsidence on vehicle/bridge interaction of rail suspension bridges will be studied.
