In weigh-in-motion (WIM) system, the gross weight or the axle weight of the passing vehicle can be measured dynamically by the sensors installed in or on the pavement. One of the WIM sensors is piezoelectric sensor. Although piezoelectric sensor has limited measurement accuracy, it is widely deployed for its low cost and easy installation. To use the piezoelectric sensor, several factors have to be considered for the WIM site itself to ensure the vehicle passing over the sensor with a relative stable state. In addition, the piezoelectric sensor is seldom used for low speed measurement because of the piezoelectric material's performance. Traditional measurement method just uses the interactions between the sensor and the vehicle's tires that make the measurement inaccurate because the sensor cannot cover the whole tire patch along the driving direction. In this paper, the pavement deflection by the vehicle under measurement is introduced. New weighing method is developed for embedded piezoelectric sensors. Field tests are performed and the measurement errors are calculated based on the static weights measured from a static scale. Comparing to the traditional method, the proposed method is proved to have a higher accuracy and require less from installation site and vehicles under measurement. Furthermore, the method shows a better performance at low vehicle speed.
Ground penetrating radar (GPR) waves in inhomogeneous medium are analyzed by numerical method in this paper. The theory analysis provides physical interpretation of a calculation model for characteristics of subsurface layers. In this model, the thickness and permittivity of subsurface layers would be estimated by traveling time of reflection wave in GPR measurement. A 3-D finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) code is used to simulate electromagnetic fields in multi-layer ground. Numerical simulations of the responses of GPR are described. Responses of different offset radars are studied in this paper. The thickness of planar layer is calculated by simulated results. Results calculated from FDTD simulations verify the accuracy of the model for estimating the parameters of ground by GPR.
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