Identification of vehicle axle loads from bridge dynamic responses

A method is presented to identify moving loads on a bridge deck modelled as an orthotropic rectangular plate. The dynamic behavior of the bridge deck under moving loads is analyzed using the orthotropic plate theory and modal superposition principle, and Tikhonov regularization procedure is applied to provide bounds to the identified forces in the time domain. The identified results using a beam model and a plate model of the bridge deck are compared, and the conditions under which the bridge deck can be simplified as an equivalent beam model are discussed. Computation simulation and laboratory tests show the effectiveness and the validity of the proposed method in identifying forces travelling along the central line or at an eccentric path on the bridge deck. (C) 2000 Academic Press.