Calibration instruction manual

Version: 2018-02-13

1. Foreword
WIM site calibration procedure is used to ensure that the automatically measured values are as close to
the static weights as possible. The main principle consists of passing calibration pre-weighed vehicles
over the WIM system, repeatedly.

Initial calibration needs to be always performed after site commissioning. The recalibration is usually
repeated every 12 month when in operation, depends on application, road quality and traffic density.

The bellow mentioned instructions describe the most common, however rather minimalistic, Kistler WIM
site calibration practice.

Note: The main factor influencing WIM system performance is the number of installed sensors and the
road quality. Depending on the application the standard deviation ranges from approximately ±2.5% GVW
high up to 10% GVW. Good calibration is an essential condition to keep the system performance
(deviation) bellow planned and desired values.

2. Procedure definition
The exact calibration procedure is depending upon the end-users requirements and is related to the
application of the WIM system. Before the calibration the user must be able to define and agree with all
parties (user, road owner, calibration vehicle owner, legal certification authority, etc.):

- what are the target vehicles or what are the most common vehicles on the site, both in class and
load
- what is the prevailing vehicle speed
- what are the certification body (local metrology for example) testing scenarios

It may happen that the specific site performance requirements are so wide or unusual that the bellow
mentioned instructions would have to be adapted accordingly. Please contact Kistler in such a case.

3. Vehicles
Generally all vehicles used for WIM system calibration must be:

- in a good technical condition

- loaded evenly with a solid load
- loaded side balanced
- powerful enough to accelerate to desired speed well before the site area

Avoid vehicles:

- with liquid or unstable loads

- vehicles with abnormal construction
- vehicles which are carrying cranes, ploughs, salt spaying systems...
- vehicles with high center of gravity

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Required vehicles
Following vehicles should be used for the WIM site calibration. The calibration vehicles should be loaded
near to their maximum load.

1. 5 axle truck with trailer is the most common and reliable calibration vehicle.
2. Optionally:
a. vehicle type that is most common on site if it is not 5 axle truck with trailer
b. 2 to 4 axle rigid lorry with the load 7 – 30t

Weighing the calibration vehicle

Before the calibration the vehicle(s) must be statically weighted. Kistler WIM Datalogger allows for three
vehicle weighing methods. However preferred and most accurate is the Single Wheel Load method using
individual wheel pads.

Wheel pads
On the market there is a wide offer of reliable weight pads intended for official tests and legal purposes.

Good example is Haenni WL103:

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Weighing (alternative) methods
During the static weighing all physical dimensions of the vehicle must be measured and noted for the
future use.

Method Accuracy Advantages Drawbacks Note

 Best practice, highest

accuracy
 Unique calibration
constants per sensor
Single
without doing any
1 Wheel High
assumptions on left/right
Load
irregularities
 Reflects different
(production + installation)
sensitivity of each sensor
 Vehicle wheel weight pads
are not available
everywhere.
Only method to be
 Need of perfectly flat
used on high
surface to weight the
precision sites
vehicle

 The distribution of GVW to Due to not equal axle

 Axle vehicle scales the wheels is estimated not balance In staggered
Axle
2 Medium commonly available on measured layout the constants
Load
police check points are not exactly the
same

 The distribution of GVW to

the wheels is estimated not
measured
 Left/Right inconsistencies
are assumed to be an In a staggered
Gross  Vehicle bridges are widely imbalanced vehicle, not an Layout, left and right
3 Vehicle Low available imbalanced system, which sensors will have the
Weight  Cheap and fast is due to the installation same calibration
and sensor deviations constant
 GVW calibration “hides”
left/right system problems

Weighing procedure for 5 axle truck

1. Position weighing platforms 1 to 4 as on figure above, direction East-West.
2. Position the 6 raising platforms as on figure bellow.
3. Position the truck as on figure, i.e. the wheels of axle 1 and 2 on platforms 1 - 4 and wheels of
axle 3, 4 and 5 on raising platforms.
4. Weigh the axle 1-2 wheel load 2 times.
5. Rotate the truck for weighing the axle 3-5: shift the axle 2, 3 & 4 platforms longitudinally for
correction of axle distance and shift all platforms laterally for optimum wheel position on the
middle of platforms.
6. Weigh the axles 3 & 5 wheel load 2 times.
7. Shift the weighing platforms from axle 5 to axle 4 and shift the rising platforms from axle 4 to axle
5.
8. Weigh the axles 3 & 4 wheel load 2 times.
9. Position weighing platforms 1 to 4 and the raising platforms in opposite direction West-East.
10. Repeat the steps (3) to (8).
11. Report the measured values in a spread sheet in order to calculate the average values of wheel,
axle and total vehicle load.

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 Left Right

1 Axle 1 2

300
3800 2320 4 weighing plattforms
(height=H)

3 Axle 2 4
9500

600
2450
10280

300
12120

Axle 3

Axle 4 6 raising plattforms

(height=H)

Axle 5

2340

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Weighing procedure for 2 axle vehicle
1. Position weighing platforms 1 to 4 as on figure below, direction East-West
2. Position the truck as on figure, i.e. the wheels of axle 1 on platforms 1 - 2 and wheels of axle 2 on
platforms 3 - 4
3. Weigh the wheel load 2 times
4. Rotate the truck for weighing in opposite direction West-East
5. Shift platforms laterally for optimum wheel position on the middle of platforms
6. Weigh the wheel load 2 times
7. Report the measured values in an Excel spread sheet in order to calculate the average values of
wheel, axle and total vehicle load
8. In case you don’t have 4 weighing platforms available, but only 2, use instead 2 raising platforms
instead and repeat the above mentioned points 2 to 6 twice

Left Right

1 Axle 1 2

300
3800

2320 4 weighing plattforms

(height=H)

3 Axle 2 4

600
2450

Notes: Due to the slope of the floor, the center of gravity of the vehicle is shifted and measurement errors
will be generated (axle 1-2 and left–right errors). Measurements must be repeated in both directions
(East-West and West-East) in order to cancel these errors through averaging.

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Drivers
It is required that only experienced drivers drive the calibration vehicles. It needs to be ensured that the
driver can drive smoothly over the WIM site. Not accelerating nor braking or maneuvering during the pass.

On the highway it might be required that the driver would pass in the “fast” lane which normally is not
allowed or hard to achieve. Thus excellent driving style or other methods for good communication with
other drivers with the means of flashing beacons for example is needed.

During the calibration the driver must be able to communicate with the operator to align on calibration
procedure progress – number of remaining required passes in individual lanes.

Speed
Speed of individual calibration passes must be agreed already in Procedure Definition (point 2).

Under all circumstances the speed must be constant.

4. Road Conditions
It is preferred that the road surface during the calibration campaign is dry. However damp road should not
present any problem. Always avoid:

- Road covered by snow

- Dirty road
- Blocked road (Stop&Go, rush hours…)

5. Weather conditions
Generally the calibration should be performed in as short period as possible. Preferably during one day in
maximum. Reason for this is to exclude influence of changing weather conditions to the road properties
(especially temperature) and to vehicle dynamics.

Avoid days with:

- Rain and / or snow

- Strong winds
- Wind gusts
- Low visibility

6. Calibration procedure
Calibration vehicle or vehicles should make at least 10 passes over the WIM system at the speeds that
are typical for the site. Such a sample of successful measurements per vehicle is recommended to
guarantee the validity of the method, but the larger this sample the smaller the statistical uncertainty. The
sample size must be determined according to the customer’s requirements.

Ideally the calibration is done lane by lane, however if needed changing the individual lanes during the
calibration campaign is also possible.

Additional calibration costs such as turnaround times, length of trip per run, number of test truck runs,
truck hourly rates, fuel surcharges and accuracy requirements can increase the calibration costs and play
big role in planning the number of calibration runs.

If the Kistler datalogger 5204A is used, please check chapter 4.4. for detailed instructions. Otherwise
please check with the manufacturer of your system.

Notes:
 Deviation relates on many factors, such as number of sensors and road quality. Generally the
calibration vehicle deviation should be at least 4 times better than desired in service system
accuracy. Example: ±5% WIM system should be calibrated the way that the calibration deviations
are well bellow ±1.5%.
 Discard runs which contain any kind of Warning or Error or runs with overall higher Deviation.

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 7. Verification of system performance – test runs
Verification of system performance should follow each successful calibration. Goal of this procedure is to
verify system stability and measurement repeatability. Moreover to find whether there are any significant
systematic deviations which might be later compensated using Assisted Calibration Procedure.

Preferably the verification test runs are not performed using the original calibration vehicle but using totally
different vehicle(s). The load as well as speed of test runs should differ too to the calibration runs.

However in many cases no such a vehicle is available on site so the initial verification has to be done with
original calibration vehicle and original load. In such a case the verification runs should at least
concentrate on speed variations.

Test vehicles
All general requirements for calibration vehicle (Chapter 3) are relevant also for the test vehicles. However
the choice of vehicle type would preferably differ from calibration vehicle.

The preferred test vehicles are:

1. Vehicle(s) which is most common on the site

2. Vehicle(s) which are of the highest interest of the customer or user

Load
All vehicles should be loaded to nearly 100% of their legal capacity with the option to unload half of the
load.

Scenarios
Recommendation: Each test vehicle must make at least 30 test runs over the WIM system at each of the
three following speeds:

- 10 times near the maximum operating speed

- 10 times near the minimum operating speed
- 10 times near the middle of the operating speed range

The vehicle speed must be kept as constant as possible during each test run.

eight test results

1. For each recorded value of total vehicle mass (GVW), the relative error E% is calculated in percent:

𝐶−𝑅
E% = 𝑥 100
𝑅

where:

C is the value measured by the WIM system

R is the corresponding reference value measured by reference scales

2. The number of relative errors E% that exceeds the relative measurement error for each set of data
(campaign / test scenario / vehicle type) is determined. This number is expressed as the relative
number of values for each set as follows:
𝑛
p= 𝑥 100
𝑁

where:

n is s the number of calculated differences exceeding the specified maximum error

N is the total number of recorded values for the given quantity

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In order to be accepted, the percentage P of relative errors exceeding the specified maximum error shall
not be greater than 5 % or even lower dependent on required system confidence level.

Results can be plotted in the form of the Excel graph. The speed, category and/or load dependences
would become apparent. Kistler provides a calibration service to compensate for these type of
dependences.

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 8. Report

Every successful calibration should be documented in the form of structured report document.

9. Recalibration
The user shall recalibrate every WIM system following any significant maintenance or changes.
Recalibration shall be performed no less frequently than annually. Abrupt or unusual changes in data
patterns can also indicate the need for recalibration.

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