GRIFFIN: advanced structural monitoring system for bridges and viaducts with dynamic weighing
What is GRIFFIN:
platform for structural monitoring bridges and viaducts
GRIFFIN is the intelligent system developed by iWIM to improve structural monitoring of bridges and viaducts. The project was created together with the DICATAM Department of the University of Brescia, with a specific goal: to combine dynamic weighing(weigh-in-motion) of vehicles with continuous measurement of structural deformations.
This system directly links fiber-optic sensors, installed on the deck, with WIM modules that detect weight, position and speed of heavy vehicles. Each step is then associated with the actual response data of the structure. The result? Accurate, continuous and reliable structural monitoring that allows action to be taken before critical problems arise.
Through this integration, GRIFFIN supports predictive maintenance of bridges. Operators can plan interventions in a targeted manner, save costs and increase the service life of the works. In addition, the platform automatically generates a digital twin of the infrastructure, updated with actual transit and measurement data. This digital twin makes it possible to simulate the behavior of the structure and predict any critical issues.
GRIFFIN has already proven its effectiveness. On the South Bypass bridge in Brescia, it has monitored thousands of vehicles every day. It recorded overloads in real time and provided accurate deformation curves. All this has improved operational management and increased bridge safety.
In summary, GRIFFIN offers a complete solution: it integrates structural monitoring, dynamic weighing, weigh-in-motion, fiber-optic sensors and digital twin infrastructure into one system. It is the ideal tool for those who want to make infrastructure safer, more efficient and ready for the challenges of the future.
GRIFFIN is a continuous structural monitoring system that natively combines dynamic vehicle weighing. The modular architecture involves optical sensors distributed along beams, supports, and piers, while weigh-in-motion scales installed on the deck capture the acting load in real time. In this way, GRIFFIN’s structural monitoring seamlessly links cause and effect, providing the operator with comprehensive data 24/7.
Monitoring of Facilities:
Compliance with Traffic Regulation: Enforcement of safety regulations based on structural response data.
Overload Detection:
Traffic statistics: Accurate and continuous vehicle classification, Early warning on structural fatigue.
Because it integrates structural monitoring and dynamic weighing
The real innovation lies in the tight integration of structural monitoring (SHM) and dynamic weighing (WIM). With GRIFFIN, 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.
Fiber optic technology: long-term reliability
Optical sensors provide robust structural monitoring: no local power supply, EMI immunity and durability > 20 years. Strain gauges measure micro-deformations with 0.1 με resolution, while optical accelerometers and inclinometers provide accurate data to enrich structural monitoring with dynamic parameters. An arrow laser completes the picture by providing millimeter measurements of deck deflection.
Software platform and real-time data analysis
The digital heart of GRIFFIN 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
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, GRIFFIN extends structural monitoring to:
- Heavy traffic highway viaducts;
- Road and rail tunnels;
- port docks;
- Historic railway bridges.
How the GRIFFIN 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
GRIFFIN 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