In review of TMH7 Part 2, the use of WIM data showed that deterministically derived vehicle combinations to be conservative in comparison with actual vehicular loads. It was shown that load model 1 of the Eurocode (British Annexure) also produces extremely conservative results when compared to actual traffic data.

The comparison of TMH7 Part 2 and EC1 Part 3 showed that NA loading consistently produces bending moments and shears that are considerably lower than that of the EC for a single notional lane loaded. It was noticed however, that as the number of notional lanes loaded increases NA loading and LM1 began to converge and produced similar results. NB loading did not produce significant bending moments and shears as the number of notional lanes increased, however for short spans NB loading did adequately compensate for the shortcommings in NA loading.

 

In review of these findings, TMH7 Part 2 (deterministic method) does not adequately simulate the load effects caused by actual vehicles over the full range of bridge deck span lengths and widths. Finally, of the comparisons conducted, there appears to be no need to adopt the Eurocodes as the combination of load models in TMH7 produces similar results to that of the Eurocode. Furthermore, although the Eurocode adopts a more simple approach to the application of traffic load models, it is more cumbersome in terms of the standards grouping. In addition the system of partial factors and combination factors which are contained in the Eurocodes are, at this stage at least, are considerably more complicated than those given in TMH7.