Bridge weigh-in-motion (BWIM) systems provide an effective approach to identifying the axle and gross vehicle weights of vehicles as they travel over an instrumented bridge. For the majority of BWIM systems, the vehicle configuration (including axle count and axle spacing) and vehicle speed are prerequisites for identifying the axle and gross weights of vehicles. Existing nothing-on-road (NOR) BWIM systems acquire such data through dedicated sensors, namely, free-of-axle-detector (FAD) sensors, in addition to weighing sensors. These FAD sensors are usually installed on the underside of the bridge deck or girders. This study presents a novel method for identifying the axle spacing and weights of vehicles. It only requires the flexural strain signal recorded from the weighing sensors, leading to both a reduction in the installation cost and broader applications of BWIM systems. The effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method are demonstrated through numerical simulations. Laboratory experiments based on a scaled vehicle–bridge interaction (VBI) model were also conducted for verification. The results show that the proposed method has good accuracy for axle spacing and axle weight identification.

Automated truck platooning (ATP) has gained growing attention due to its advantage in reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions. However, it poses serious challenges to highway bridges due to the load effect of multiple closely spaced heavy-duty trucks on the bridge. In China, ATP also has great application prospects in the massive and ever-increasing highway freight market. Therefore, the load effects of ATP on bridges need to be thoroughly investigated. In this study, typical Chinese highway bridges and trucks were adopted. ATP load models were designed according to the current Chinese road traffic regulations. The load effects of ATP on highway bridges were calculated using the influence line method and evaluated based on the Chinese bridge design specifications. Results show that the load effect of ATP on bridges increases with the increase in the gross vehicle mass and the truck platooning size but decreases with the increasing inter-truck spacing and the critical wheelbase. The Grade-I (best quality standard) highway bridges are generally capable of withstanding the ATP loads, while caution should be exercised for other bridges. Strategies for preventing serious adverse impacts of ATP load on highway bridges are proposed.

Autonomous truck platooning (ATP) used in road transport helps achieve emission peak and carbon neutrality. For this reason, increasing research investments have been added to ATP recently so as to accelerate its commercial application. However, the unusual load patterns of ATP on highway bridges have not been explicitly considered in current bridge design methods. Although some evaluations regarding ATP-bridge have been preliminarily conducted, they were focused on the static effect. In this paper, the critical dynamic loading scenarios, particularly in resonance conditions, during ATP crossing highway bridge were investigated via both theoretical deduction and numerical simulation. Results showed that highway bridge resonances easily happen when ATP crosses the bridge at normal speeds. As a result, the impact factors (IMs) of the bridge can be higher than those caused by a single truck and also exceed the code-specified values, which may thus require an improvement.