Piezo-based weigh-in-motion system for the railway transport

Abstract

This paper presents an in situ implementation of the weigh-in-motion (WIM) concept for the railway transport. The presented WIM system constitutes a part of a larger structural health monitoring system dedicated to railway bridges. The identification of train load acting on a bridge is necessary for performing subsequent identification of damage in the analyzed structure. Some existing WIM methods in the railway applications have been reviewed. The authors' implementation based on piezoelectric sensors has been described in detail. Hardware development of the WIM system, including wireless data transfer to a remote analysis centre, has been outlined. Results from measurement sessions carried out in situ have been presented and successfully verified by a numerical model of rail–sleeper–ground interaction. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.