ABSTRACT
The importance of bearing capacity measurements for structural assessment is increasing worldwide. The establishment of quality assurance procedures is therefore all the more important. As a rule, these include self-monitoring by the operator and calibration of the measuring equipment at the manufacturer’s premises or at calibration centers. A complete quality assurance includes, in addition to the inspection and calibration of individual devices and device components, the participation in comparative investigations. For the Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD), comparative measurements were established in Germany on the basis of international existing comparative tests and guidelines. The measurements take place annually on the premises of the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) according to a fixed schedule. In addition to checking the comparability of the deflection measurement, the repeatability and the temperature measuring equipment and the FWD setups are also checked. Furthermore, the annual event enables the important exchange between the FWD operators, which in turn is also useful for quality assurance.
