The Efficiency of Wim-Systems Application on Motor Roads

Abstract

Introduction. The introduction to the paper highlights the general role of the weight control of motor vehicles on roads by WiM – methods (Wegh-in-Motion) in the assurance of the traffic safety and in the transportation infrastructure preservation. Problem statement. The issues of the paper concern the problems of implementation of contemporary technologies of the High-Speed WiM (HS-WiM) where the conditions of the measurements of the loads from the vehicle generate high measurement error. Purpose. The main goal of the paper is to perform an analytical review of methods of the weight control of vehicles and of competitive aspects of existing WiM technologies and also the analysis of the practice of WiM application. Results. The analytical reviewing led to the following results: it was revealed that the basic principle of WiM systems operation consists in determining the dynamic wheel/axle loading of a vehicle transmitted to the pavement; data thus obtained shall be used to reveal the overloading. Modern WiM systems give possibilities to obtain data concerning axle number, axle spaces, vehicle length and speed, axle (or wheel) dynamic loading, number of equivalents of standard axle loading, and also data regarding the traffic flow characteristics; it was concluded that WiM systems can be divided into two main types: the systems operating at low speed of a vehicle (up to 15 km/h, LS WiM) and those operating at steady speed of the traffic flow (up to 130 km/h, or high speed, HS WiM). LS WiM ensure the accuracy of the measurement in a range from 3 % to 5 % and belong to the methods of weight control of motor vehicles approved by the legal metrology as well as the static weighing does. HS WiM control is more sensitive to the external factors due to the effect of a vehicle dynamic and thus cannot assure the above stated accuracy of measurements, moreover, cannot assure the appropriate accuracy for the satisfactory number of trucks. HS WiM systems are not approved by the legal metrology; factors affecting the accuracy of measurements in HS WiM systems were analyzed. It was revealed that the effect of a vehicle dynamic on the measurement error can be mitigated assuring the compliance of the road pavement surface condition with the standard requirements mainly with those concerning pavement surface roughness.