Field Verification over One Year of a Portable Bridge Weigh-in-Motion System for Steel Bridges
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 24, Issue 7
Abstract
Because fatigue damage considerably reduces the service life of steel bridges, maintenance for fatigue damage should be performed properly. For the effective maintenance of fatigue damage, it is important to monitor traffic loads over long periods of time because fatigue damage is caused by repeated high stresses due to the weight of traveling vehicles. This study verified the long-term effectiveness of a portable weigh-in-motion (pBWIM) system through 1-year field measurements conducted on an actual in-service bridge. The pBWIM consists only of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers and MEMS inertial measurement units (IMUs), which are ideal for field measurements because they can be easily attached and detached using a magnetic jig. Furthermore, because MEMS accelerometers and MEMS IMUs are low-power-consumption devices, they are suitable for long-term field measurements. Field measurements were performed using a test truck in winter, summer, and autumn. The results indicate that regardless of the ambient temperature, the pBWIM system can estimate gross vehicle weights (GVWs) within an error of ±10.6% over a 1-year period compared with static weights measured using a truck weighing scale. Furthermore, it is found to be important to determine the dependence of the influence line on ambient temperature to estimate GVWs with high accuracy.
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Acknowledgments
This study was carried out as part of an activity by the Institute for Future City Studies at Tokyo City University. The field measurements of this study were carried out by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s “Technological research and development on promotion of utilization of monitoring technology for social infrastructure.” We express our gratitude to Mr. Konishi of the Kyoto National Highway Office and everyone else involved. The field measurements were supported by Seiko Epson.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 24 • Issue 7 • July 2019
Copyright
© 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 21, 2018
Accepted: Dec 17, 2018
Published online: May 2, 2019
Published in print: Jul 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Oct 2, 2019
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