Determining bridge loading from south african wim data

Abstract

WIM data is in abundance in South Africa, mainly due to toll concessions operating in the Northern parts of the country. Most Weigh-in-Motion sensors are considered to be well calibrated to international norms, but still suffer some shortcomings. Raw WIM data still contains inherent measurement errors, and some post calibration still needs to be performed before the data is usable to determine bridge load effects. Over the years, some studies have suggested cleaning techniques and post calibration techniques for South African WIM data. This paper investigates errors, systematic and random, as well as other uncertainties that are inherent to WIM systems, which influence bridge load effects to show how local WIM data can be used to calculate bridge load effects.