Development and Testing of a Railway Bridge Weigh-in-Motion System

Donya Hajializadeh,Jan Kalin,Eugene John Obrien,Aleš Žnidarič

doi:10.3390/app10144708

Abstract

This study describes the development and testing of a railway bridge weigh-in-motion (RB-WIM) system. The traditional bridge WIM (B-WIM) system developed for road bridges was extended here to calculate the weights of railway carriages. The system was tested using the measured response from a test bridge in Poland, and the accuracy of the system was assessed using statically-weighed trains. To accommodate variable velocity of the trains, the standard B-WIM algorithm, which assumes a constant velocity during the passage of a vehicle, was adjusted and the algorithm revised accordingly. The results showed that the vast majority of the calculated carriage weights fell within ±5% of their true, statically-weighed values. The sensitivity of the method to the calibration methods was then assessed using regression models, trained by different combinations of calibration trains.

Highlights

With the general trend of increasing axle loads and operating speeds of trains, the condition of railway bridges is of greater concern, which requires more detailed analyses
Building on lessons learned in developing road Bridge weigh-in-motion (B-WIM), this paper describes the development and testing of a new railway bridge WIM system (RB-WIM)
The solid black line represents the error in gross vehicle weights (GVW) estimated using the railway bridge weigh-in-motion (RB-WIM) algorithm applied to the 35 the low-speed device, onlycarriages

Summary

Introduction

With the general trend of increasing axle loads and operating speeds of trains, the condition of railway bridges is of greater concern, which requires more detailed analyses. These detailed assessments are even more important for old bridges, which are often subject to higher loads than originally envisaged. To ensure compliance of train operators with the specified weight limits, simple and efficient methods of calculating train weights are required This has led to an interest in methods of weighing trains in motion in recent years [1,2,3,4].

Methods

Results

Conclusion