Search Results

As part of a system for structural health monitoring, it is required to determine the spatial and temporal distributions of vertical loads arising from heavy trucks driven on flexible bridge structures. An instrumented truck is used to generate the input loads and estimate the load time histories. The truck can carry a range of sensors; however direct measurement of vertical tire loads between the tires and the structure is not considered realistic. The dynamic loads are to be estimated from the sensor outputs. These are affected by both truck and bridge dynamics and these must be accounted for within the load estimation process. Estimation may be susceptible to many factors including static mass distribution, vehicle longitudinal motion, variations in lateral position on the bridge, as well as any surface unevenness.