Method and apparatus for measuring the load bearing capacity of a platform

Method for continuously measuring the stiffness of a transport infrastructure road level and industrial floors, wherein it comprises the following steps of:

• rolling on the road level a wheel of mass Mr suspended beneath a chassis of mass Mc,
• subjecting the wheel to vertical vibrations by means of an unbalanced member rotating about the axis of the wheel and subjected to a centrifugal force Fc,
• measuring as a function of time the vertical acceleration Gr of the wheel and the vertical acceleration Gc of the chassis by means of acceleration sensors mounted on the wheel and on the chassis,
• measuring as a function of time the angular phase φ between the direction of the centrifugal force Fc of the unbalanced member and the vertical by means of a sensor,
• calculating as a function of time the vertical component FTA of the force applied by the wheel on the road level,
• calculating as a function of time the vertical deformation d undergone by the road level from the measurement of the vertical acceleration Gr of the wheel,
• establishing for each cycle of vibration the loop of the vertical component FTA with respect to the deformation d,
• calculating at each cycle of vibration the gradient of the loop in the branch of the ascending vertical components in order to obtain the stiffness of the road level.