National Center for Materials Service Safety, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China.
College of Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
Sensors (Basel). 2023 Apr 27;23(9):4312. doi: 10.3390/s23094312.
Weighing-In-Motion (WIM) technology is one of the main tools for pavement management. It can accurately describe the traffic situation on the road and minimize overload problems. WIM sensors are the core elements of the WIM system. The excellent basic performance of WIMs sensor and its ability to maintain a stable output under different temperature environments are critical to the entire process of WIM. In this study, a WIM sensor was developed, which adopted a PZT-5H piezoelectric ceramic and integrated a temperature probe into the sensor. The designed WIM sensor has the advantages of having a small size, simple structure, high sensitivity, and low cost. A sine loading test was designed to test the basic performance of the piezoelectric sensor by using amplitude scanning and frequency scanning. The test results indicated that the piezoelectric sensor exhibits a clear linear relationship between input load and output voltage under constant environmental temperature. The linear correlation coefficient R of the fitting line is up to 0.999, and the sensitivity is 4.04858 mV/N at a loading frequency of 2 Hz at room temperature. The sensor has good frequency-independent characteristics. However, the temperature has a significant impact on it. Therefore, the output performance of the piezoelectric ceramic sensor is stabilized under different temperature conditions by using a multivariate nonlinear fitting algorithm for temperature compensation. The fitting result R is 0.9686, the root mean square error (RMSE) is 0.2497, and temperature correction was achieved. This study has significant implications for the application of piezoelectric ceramic sensors in road WIM systems.
动态称重（WIM）技术是路面管理的主要工具之一。它可以准确描述道路上的交通状况，并最大限度地减少过载问题。WIM 传感器是 WIM 系统的核心元素。WIM 传感器的优异基本性能及其在不同温度环境下保持稳定输出的能力，对 WIM 的整个过程至关重要。本研究开发了一种 WIM 传感器，该传感器采用 PZT-5H 压电陶瓷，并在传感器中集成了温度探头。设计的 WIM 传感器具有尺寸小、结构简单、灵敏度高和成本低的优点。通过幅度扫描和频率扫描，设计了正弦加载试验来测试压电传感器的基本性能。试验结果表明，在恒定环境温度下，压电传感器的输入载荷与输出电压之间呈现出明显的线性关系。拟合线的线性相关系数 R 高达 0.999，在室温下加载频率为 2 Hz 时，灵敏度为 4.04858 mV/N。传感器具有良好的频率无关特性。然而，温度对其有显著影响。因此，采用多元非线性拟合算法对温度进行补偿，稳定了压电陶瓷传感器在不同温度条件下的输出性能。拟合结果 R 为 0.9686，均方根误差（RMSE）为 0.2497，实现了温度修正。本研究对压电陶瓷传感器在道路 WIM 系统中的应用具有重要意义。
