Dynamic analysis of a beam on a moving vehicle is presented in this paper. The vehicle is simulated by a four degrees-of-freedom mass-spring system and the beam on top is supported by spring-damping systems. Two contact models named the ‘point contact’ and the ‘patch contact’ respectively, are adopted to simulate the interaction between road surface and vehicular tyres. The equation of motion of the beam-vehicle system is formulated and the dynamic response on the beam under the excitation of the irregular road surface is derived. Numerical simulations are conducted to demonstrate the influence of different factors, such as the length of the contact, the velocity of vehicle, the road condition and the bracing stiffness, etc. on the vibration level of the beam structure, which aims to provide references on the vibration problem in transporting a beam-shaped package
