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AssigneeK.K. Holding AG
InventorsReto Calderara, Lothar Jahreiss, Hans C. Sonderegger, Markus Caprez
Estimating the term…
The invention concerns a sensor arrangement which is installed in the surface of carriageways or runways and serves to detect the wheel loads of vehicles or aircraft and/or their shear components on the surface during travel. The construction of the flanged tube sensor with piezoelectric crystal plates makes possible modular assembly, in that either piezo-plates sensitive to pressure P only, or to shear S, or to combinations of both are installed, since all piezo-plates have the same dimensions. The force introduction flange makes possible a concentration of the force lines onto the measuring arrangement with a substantial mechanical amplifying effect. The packing of the flanged tube sensor ready to install ensures proper fitting and positioning in the installation groove. Here the two rolling force insulation compounds and the foam insulator of the tubular part are important. The application of the invention lies in traffic management for weight detection. With the addition of shear measuring, new applications are feasible in vehicle testing tracks and aircraft landing runways, opening up new aspects of driving dynamics and security.
Sensor arrangement for installation in roadways' or runways' surfaces, for detecting one or more of the weights and dynamic reactions of vehicle wheels comprising:
Procedure for calibrating a sensor arrangement characterized by the amenability of quartz piezoelectric crystals to quasistatic calibration being utilized to run a test vehicle with known axle weights over the sensor arrangement at a speed significantly below 1 km/h, so that all vibration effects due to the vehicle's suspension are suppressed and the vehicle's static weight corresponds to the vehicle's quasistatic weight.
Procedure for calibrating a sensor arrangement including a measuring channel being slanted with respect to an axis of a road by an angle .alpha. to enable calibration of sensitivity variation across the roads width, comprising running a calibration vehicle with known axle loads over the measuring channel several times shifting from the left to the right side of the road, and comparing signals from the individual wheels left and right.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.