GRIFFON: advanced structural monitoring system for bridges and viaducts with dynamic weighing
What is GRIFFON:
platform for structural monitoring bridges and viaducts
What is GRIFFON:
platform for structural monitoring bridges and viaducts
GRIFFON is iWIM’s intelligent system for infrastructure monitoring, bridge maintenance and bridge protection system, developed by iWiM.
It combines dynamic weighing, weigh-in-motion system, fiber-optic sensors and digital twin technology to monitor bridges and viaducts 24/7. GRIFFON detects vehicle weight, speed, position and overloads on bridges, correlating each overloaded transit with the real structural response of the infrastructure.
The system supports bridge safety, bridge maintenance, predictive maintenance, bridge preservation, bridge rehabilitation and infrastructure protection. It also enables earthquake monitoring, seismic event detection and early warning of critical structural behavior.
With continuous data, overload detection and deformation analysis, GRIFFON helps operators protect bridges, reduce risks, plan targeted interventions and extend the service life of infrastructure.
Contact us to evaluate your infrastructure project
How the GRIFFON structural monitoring system works
Optical sensors provide robust structural monitoring: no local power supply, EMI immunity and durability > 20 years.
Our monitoring solution integrates a full range of optical sensors and hardware: strain gauges for strain, accelerometers for traffic-induced dynamics, inclinometers for tilt measurement, environmental sensors for temperature and humidity, displacement sensors for structural movements, and a fiber-optic datalogger that synchronizes and transmits all collected data for processing.
Fiber optic technology: long-term reliability
Software platform and real-time data analysis
The digital heart of GRIFFON structural monitoring is a web-based platform that collects, processes and displays millions of records. Key Features:
- Dashboard with structural monitoring sensor maps and WIM transit lists;
- Smart alarms: when structural monitoring indicates an abnormality, the alert starts;
- Automatically generated PDF reports useful for certifications;
- REST API to integrate structural monitoring data inside BIM and external systems
Monitoring of Facilities:
Compliance with Traffic Regulation: Enforcement of safety regulations based on structural response data.
Bridge Maintenance:
Traffic statistics: Accurate and continuous vehicle classification, Early warning on structural fatigue.
Integration of structural monitoring and dynamic weighing sensors
The real innovation lies in the tight integration of structural monitoring (SHM) and dynamic weighing (WIM). With GRIFFON, each and every vehicular transit is tracked: the measured weight is immediately correlated with the recorded deformation, slope, and vibration, increasing the accuracy of structural monitoring and reducing uncertainties in prediction models. This results in:
More reliable remaining life estimates from real traffic data;
Proactive alerts when structural monitoring detects exceeded service thresholds;
Continuous calibration of the infrastructural digital twin based on experimental measurements.
One of our installations: Brescia's Southern Bypass
In the pilot project, the combination of dynamic weighing and structural monitoring identified an exceptional 101 t transport that generated a 13.64 mm arrow. Comparison with the FEM model, updated with structural monitoring data, showed a deviation of less than 3 percent, validating the sensory configuration.
Applications and system scalability
Thanks to its archietecture, GRIFFON extends structural monitoring to:
- Heavy traffic highway viaducts;
- Road and rail tunnels;
- port docks;
- Historic railway bridges.
How the GRIFFON structural monitoring system works
Our monitoring solution integrates a full range of optical sensors and hardware: strain gauges for strain, accelerometers for traffic-induced dynamics, inclinometers for tilt measurement, environmental sensors for temperature and humidity, displacement sensors for structural movements, and a fiber-optic datalogger that synchronizes and transmits all collected data for processing.
SENSORS.
Sensors collect data on structural response (strain, tilt, vibration, etc.).
FIBER OPTIC technology
Fiber-optic technology ensures great sensor durability, high measurement reliability and insensitivity to temperature changes
DATALOGGER
Collects, stores and transmits synchronized sensor data
Benefits for managers, designers and enterprises
GRIFFON structural monitoring produces tangible benefits:
- Continuous surveillance: 24/7 structural monitoring replaces many manual inspections
- KPIs in dashboards: Decisions based on objective structural monitoring metrics
- Budget optimization: -30% maintenance costs thanks to predictive structural monitoring
- Overload alert: Dynamic weighing + 24/7 structural monitoring = damage reduction
- BIM compatibility: Structural monitoring data exported to IFC
Why choose iWiM's advanced structural viaduct monitoring system
iWIM has 15 years in the WIM field and now leads distributed fiber-optic structural monitoring. Choosing GRIFONE means adopting certified structural monitoring, supported by in-house hardware and software development and a service team with a local presence.
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FIBER OPTIC MONITORING
DYNAMIC WEIGHING
"EACH BRIDGE TELLS ITS OWN STORY IN REAL TIME."
Technical box weighing system
- Material: steel
- Plate dimensions: 1476/1732 x 598 x 20/22/25 mm
- Size of strips: 1476/1732 x 106 x 60 mm
- Axle weight range: 0 – 25,000 kg
- Weighing technology: optical sensors
- Nominal accuracy: ±2.5%
- Temperature operating range: -30 … +70 °C
- Class of accuracy (COST 323): A(5)
- Detection speed range: 5 … 30 km/h
- Durability: > 10 years
- Number of sensors per lane: 4
- Compatible road surface: bituminous or concrete
- Ambient temperature dependence: absent
- Need for inductive loops: absent
- Cabling under the roadway: only fiber optics, no power cables
- Installation method: precast slim concrete or cast iron
Datalogger
- Dimensions: 482 x 177 x 170 mm
- Weight: 6 kg
- Front panel connectors: SC/APC (optical fiber), RJ45 (network), IEC (power supply)
- Mounting: Standard 19″ rack brackets (EIA-310)
- Supply voltage: 110-230 VAC
- Power consumption (average): 15 W
- Temperature operating range: -10 … +60 °C
- Contents: PC, light source for optical fiber, spectrometer
- HDD capacity: 128 to 1024 GB
- Local storage capacity: > 30 days with context image, > 365 days textual data only
- Network Interface: Ethernet 1 Gbps (IEEE 803.3ab)
- Distance to sensors: < 10 km