Design and evaluation of portable flat-bed wheel and axle load scale for measuring lightweight vehicles

Abstract

The balancing of the wheel and axle load ratio affects the vehicle performance. In this study, the flat-bed load scale was designed and fabricated using the ring transducer that detected the force in a range of 0-150 kg. The 48 mm ring transducers were bonded with the strain gauges in circuits of the quarter and full Wheatstone bridge. After that, the ring transducers were placed in the 3 patterns of P1, P2 and P3 and statically calibrated at the 3 positions i.e., centre (C1) and offset-centre (C2 and C3). The P3 type of force platform was found that it could be used to measure the vertical force accurately whereas the P1 pattern had highest percentage error in percentage.