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Maurer Sanfield India Limited (MSIL) offers advanced Structural Health Monitoring Systems (SHMS) designed to ensure the safety, stability, and performance of infrastructure by providing real-time insights into load conditions and structural behaviour.
In many bridge and infrastructure projects, it is essential to monitor the actual loads acting on to the Bearings and Expansion Joints, number of Load Cycles, peak movement and rotations to detect any deviations or irregularities in long term performance of the Product as well as the Structure they are put in. To address this need, MSIL has developed an innovative Health Monitoring System which can be integrated with its range of products to deliver accurate, real-time data without affecting the functionality. The Bearings and Joints integrated with SHMS help detect early signs of stress, deterioration, magnitude & cycles of loads & movements over the estimated range, enabling authorities to check, address the issue and do timely maintenance for improved safety.
By integrating SHMS into its state-of-the art bearing and joint systems, MSIL empowers engineers and infrastructure owners with reliable, precise, and actionable insights. This proactive approach to structural monitoring minimizes risks, extends the lifespan of critical assets, and ensures the highest standards of safety and performance.
Maurer Sanfield India Limited (MSIL) continues to push the boundaries of structural engineering by integrating advanced measuring and evaluation systems directly into essential bridge components—expansion joints and spherical bearings—transforming them into intelligent sensors.
Real-time monitoring of bridges is becoming increasingly viable without the need for continuous on-site inspections. As part of the prestigious pilot initiative “Intelligent Bridge in the Digital Test Field Highway (DTA)” under the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI), MSIL has developed and installed innovative sensing systems within two MSM Spherical Bearings and one MSM Expansion Joint. These are not just attached, but integrated directly into the bridge components—an important distinction that sets this technology apart.
These sensor-equipped components were installed in a newly constructed replacement bridge at the Nuremberg highway junction (structure BW402e) in 2016. Since then, they have consistently demonstrated stable data output, automatically evaluated in real time. Below is a detailed insight into both components, developed in collaboration with the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt).
The MSIL Swivel Joist Expansion Joint, specially designed with embedded sensors, has successfully achieved its main goal: real-time vehicle classification. Being in direct contact with every passing vehicle, expansion joints are ideally suited for such monitoring. With the MSIL system, speed, load, and time data are captured at the same point—eliminating the need for multiple data sources.
Key features include:
All signals are evaluated through a dedicated control cabinet installed on the bridge. To enhance precision, calibration runs were performed using standard trucks at different speeds (5, 30, 60, and 90 km/h). Based on the collected data, MSIL developed a dynamic simulation model to better understand the interaction between vehicle tires and the expansion joint. This allows for virtual calibration, improved data accuracy, and refined result evaluation.
The deviation of the measured loads and speed values from the real values of the vehicles crossing the bridge presented a challenge. The reasons are dynamic interactions between tire and expansion joints as well as speed-dependent vibration of the expansion joint after each crossing. In order to evaluate and computationally compensate for these dynamic effects, calibration runs with two different trucks with defined parameters were carried out in September 2016 and April 2018: One 3-axle dump truck (total weight 27.7 t) and a 5-axle trailer truck (40.2 t). The tests were run at 5, 30, 60 and 90 km/h. Moreover, a numerical simulation model was developed, capable of reproducing the dynamics of the vehicle and the expansion joint and their interaction. With this model, calibration runs can now be carried out virtually and the results enable an even better analysis. “The better we understand the interrelations, the more accurate are the results delivered by our expansion joint. Which means that the measured values are corrected more precisely”, explains MAURER development engineer Dr.-Ing. Daniel Rill. “Now the fine-tuning of the result evaluation is the focus of the expansion joint project.”
MSIL’s MSM Spherical Bearings are setting new standards in bridge monitoring with three-tier functionality:
These intelligent bearings are equipped with pressure and position sensors that capture:
Together, these readings are processed through a proprietary evaluation algorithm, enabling accurate Bridge Weigh-in-Motion (B-WIM) data collection even at standard highway speeds (80–90 km/h) with a ±10% accuracy. The system also identifies the natural frequencies of the bridge, providing deeper insight into its structural integrity.
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