Weigh-In-Motion System in Flexible Pavements Using Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors Part A: Concept

Abstract

Weight data of vehicles play an important role in traffic planning, weight enforcement, and pavement condition assessment. In this paper, a weigh-in-motion (WIM) system that functions at both low-speeds and high-speeds in flexible pavements is developed based on in-pavement, three-dimensional glass-fiber-reinforced, polymer-packaged fiber Bragg grating sensors (3D GFRP-FBG). Vehicles passing over the pavement produce strains that the system monitors by measuring the center wavelength changes of the embedded 3D GFRP-FBG sensors. The FBG sensor can estimate the weight of vehicles because of the direct relationship between the loading on the pavement and the strain inside the pavement. A sensitivity study shows that the developed sensor is very sensitive to sensor installation depth, pavement property, and load location. Testing in the field validated that the longitudinal component of the sensor if not corrected by location has a measurement accuracy of 86.3% and 89.5% at 5 mph and 45 mph vehicle speed, respectively. However, the system also has the capability to estimate the location of the loading position, which can enhance the system accuracy to more than 94.5%.