Moving force identification studies, II: Comparative studies

The theoretical background for four moving force identification methods has been presented in a companion paper. This part of the paper is an extension of the work to study the applicability of the four moving force identification methods. The parameters under study include the speed of vehicles, sampling frequency, axle-spacing-to-span ratio, and sensitivity towards noise. For the time domain method and frequency-time domain method, recommendation of the number of strain gauges is included. A comparison of the accuracy of the force identification using the four methods is given. Both illustrative and experimental results show that each method has its merits and limitations. It is found that the TDM gives the best results, but it is time consuming. Recommendations are given for each method to improve their performance and range of application. Further investigation would be to merge the four identification methods into a moving force identification system (MFIS). 2001 Academic Press.