Hybrid Fiber-Optic/Electrical Measurement System for Characterization of Railway Traffic and Its Effects on a Short Span Bridge

The characterization of traffic effects on a short span railway bridge in Northern Portugal with a new hybrid platform that allows the simultaneous assessment of signals generated by a sensing network composed of both electrical and fiber Bragg grating-based sensors was demonstrated. A commercial fiber-optic-based train characterization system using a bridge weight-in-motion algorithm was also developed and tested. By using only three fiber Bragg grating sensors the system allows on-motion determination of train speed and weight distribution.