Design of a real-time overload monitoring system for bridges and roads based on structural response

The problem of the general overload of vehicles that causing premature failure of bridges and roads is becoming more and more obvious. Structural behaviors of bridges and roads need real-time monitoring and diagnosis, timely damage detection, safety evaluation and necessary precautions, in order to prevent accidents such as the crack or the collapse of bridges and roads. However, the existing monitoring system is too expensive to be applied in low budget projects. This paper designs a portable, low-cost, low-power structural monitoring system, which is equipped with Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) traffic sensors, a central processing unit (CPU), an amplifier circuit, an Analog/Digital (A/D) converter circuit, a communication circuit, an alarm circuit, and analysis software. The proposed system can collect the critical data for a certain judge algorithm about the force of the pavement. An alarm will be signaled and the overweight data will be transmitted to the data center to make further analysis. At the same time, the license plate numbers of the overweight vehicles will be collected and sent to the traffic management department. The system has been tested and the results are satisfactory. Because of its features of simple structure, easy implementation, and low cost, the proposed system fills the application gaps of structural health monitoring in low-budget projects.