Title: Effect of vehicle-pavement interaction on weigh-in-motion equipment design

Authors: Michael S. Mamlouk

Addresses: Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA

Abstract: The load applied by trucks on the pavement varies instantaneously due to road roughness, truck speed, suspension type, tyre pressure as well as other factors. Multi-sensor WIM devices are capable of better representing the actual wheel load distribution due to the fact that they capture a large sample size from a variable population. The main objective of the paper is to design the multi-sensor WIM devices for flexible pavements in order to obtain a good estimate of the static vehicle weight. The Florida COMPAS computer program was used to determine the dynamic forces on flexible pavements under various conditions. Nine vehicle types, three suspension types, five levels of road roughness and three speeds were analysed. Dynamic forces were obtained for many combinations of sensor spacings and numbers of sensors. For each case, the sensor spacing which provided the least coefficient of variation of the dynamic impact factor was selected to be the optimum sensor spacing. The minimum number of sensors required to accurately represent the static gross vehicle weight was also determined. The effects of vehicle type, suspension type, pavement roughness and vehicle speed on the minimum number of sensors and the optimum sensor spacing were investigated. The minimum number of sensors and the optimum sensor spacing of multi-sensor weigh-in-motion devices that provide the best estimate of vehicle weight were determined.

Keywords: asphalt pavements; dynamic forces; multiple sensors; multi-sensor systems; vehicle-pavement interaction; weigh-in-motion; WIM; wheel load distribution; static vehicle weight estimation; flexible pavements; vehicle type; suspension type; vehicle suspensions; road roughness; vehicle speed; truck speed.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHVS.1996.054567

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 1996 Vol.3 No.1/2/3/4, pp.306 - 322

Published online: 18 Jun 2013 *

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