Analysis of Shoe Friction During Sliding Against Floor Material: Role of Fluid Contaminant

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin T. Moore ◽  
Pradeep L. Menezes ◽  
Michael R. Lovell ◽  
Kurt E. Beschorner

Understanding the tribological interactions between shoe and floor materials is important in order to enhance shoe and floor design and to prevent slip and fall accidents during walking. In the present investigation, experiments were conducted using a custom developed pin-on-disk type tribometer to understand the influence of boundary and hydrodynamic properties on the shoe-floor materials’ coefficient of friction. Specifically, polyurethane shoe material was slid against vinyl floor material in the presence of varying lubricants (i.e., water, detergent, three diluted glycerol concentrations, and canola oil). The experiments were conducted for a range of biologically relevant sliding velocities from 0.05 m sec−1 to 1.0 m sec−1 at a contact pressure of 266.1 kPa under ambient conditions. The fluid chemical composition appeared to affect the boundary friction coefficient with longer-chain molecules resulting in a decreased coefficient of friction. As fluid viscosity increased, the rate of coefficient of friction decay increased with respect to increasing fluid entrainment velocity, suggesting less material contact and increased film thickness. The nondimensional film thickness under all conditions was calculated and the nondimensional film thickness consistently increased with increased viscosity and speed. Additionally, the effect of functionally achievable variations in polyurethane shoe roughness on the coefficient of friction was examined and found to have no statistically significant effect on boundary or hydrodynamic contributions to the coefficient of friction.

Author(s):  
Gurjeet Singh ◽  
Kurt Beschorner

Slip and fall accidents are a major occupational health concern. Identifying the lubrication mechanisms affecting shoe-floor-contaminant friction under biofidelic (testing conditions that mimic human slipping) conditions is critical to identifying unsafe surfaces and designing a slip-resistant work environment. The purpose of this study is to measure the effects of varying tread design, tread depth and fluid viscosity on underfoot hydrodynamic pressure, the load supported by the fluid (i.e. load carrying capacity), and the coefficient of friction (COF) during a simulated slip. A single vinyl floor material and two shoe types (work shoe and sportswear shoe) with three different tread depths (no tread, half tread and full tread) were tested under two lubrication conditions: 1) 90% glycerol and 10% water (219 cP) and 2) 1.5% Detergent-98.5% (1.8cP) water solutions. Hydrodynamic pressures were measured with a fluid pressure sensor embedded in the floor and a forceplate was used to measure the friction and normal forces used to calculate coefficient of friction. The study showed that hydrodynamic pressure developed when high viscosity fluids were combined with no tread and resulted in a major reduction of COF (0.005). Peak hydrodynamic pressures (and load supported by the fluid) for the no tread-high viscous conditions were 234 kPa (200.5 N) and 87.63 kPa (113.3 N) for the work and sportswear shoe, respectively. Hydrodynamic pressures were negligible when at least half the tread was present or when a low viscosity fluid was used despite the fact that many of these conditions also resulted in dangerously low COF values. The study suggests that hydrodynamic lubrication is only relevant when high viscous fluids are combined with little or no tread and that other lubrication mechanisms besides hydrodynamic effects are relevant to slipping like boundary lubrication.


Author(s):  
Caitlin Moore ◽  
Kurt Beschorner ◽  
Pradeep L. Menezes ◽  
Michael R. Lovell

Slip and fall accidents cost billions of dollars each year. Shoe-floor-lubricant friction has been shown to follow the Stribeck effect, operating primarily in the boundary and mixed-lubrication regimes. Two of the most important factors believed to significantly contribute to shoe-floor-lubricant friction in the boundary lubrication regime are adhesion and ploughing. Experiments were conducted using a pin-on-disk tribometer to quantify adhesion and ploughing contributions to shoe-floor friction in dry and lubricated conditions. The coefficient of friction between three shoe materials and two floor materials of different hardness and roughness were considered. Experiments were conducted under six lubricants for a sliding speed of 0.01 m/sec at ambient conditions. It was found that the contribution of adhesion and ploughing to shoe-floor-lubricant friction was significantly affected by material hardness, roughness, and lubricant properties. Material hardness and roughness are known to affect adhesion, with increased hardness or increased roughness typically resulting in decreased adhesion. The smoothest shoe material, while also being the hardest, resulted in the greatest adhesional contribution to friction. The roughest material, while also being the softest, resulted in the lowest adhesional contributions under dry conditions. Canola oil consistently resulted in the lowest percent of full adhesion and water consistently resulted in the highest percent of full adhesion, presumably due to the thickness, of the boundary lubrication layer. Ploughing contribution was dependent upon the hardness of the shoe and floor materials. A positive correlation was found between the shoe and floor hardness ratio and ploughing coefficient of friction.


2004 ◽  
Vol 816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Jacobsen ◽  
Eric Stachowiak ◽  
Gerfried Zwicker ◽  
Wolfgang Lortz ◽  
Ralph Brandes

AbstractIn the work presented the coefficient of friction (COF) was firstly determined metrologically by a systematic assessment of motor currents for different products of pressure and velocity (p v). With all seven test slurries it could be shown that the inserted energy ECMP is proportional to the product of pressure and velocity. The COF of the parameter domain considered here does not depend on the inserted energy or the product of p v in a first approximation. For all tested slurries it was demonstrated that, both the COF and the removal rate (RR) behave analogously (low COF→ low RR).Measurements of the viscosity η have shown that η is not a constant in the shear rate range relevant for CMP. Using the obtained viscosity values a mean slurry film thickness in the range of 2,5 -C 6 μm could be calculated.


Author(s):  
J-D Wheeler ◽  
N Fillot ◽  
P Vergne ◽  
D Philippon ◽  
GE Morales Espejel

The study reported here deals with elastohydrodynamic point contacts and it is focused on the influence of contact ellipticity. In five velocity–load reference cases, ellipticity was varied from slender to wide configurations, including the circular contact. For each case, Hertzian pressure, Hertzian area, load, and entrainment velocity were kept constant while the ellipticity was varied by changing the curvature radii. In this context, the maximum central film thickness did not occur for the infinitely wide contact, but for a slender configuration close to the circular case. Moreover, the minimum film thickness reached its optimum for a wide but finite elliptical contact. For low ellipticity ratios, specific film thickness features were obtained. In particular, very high central/minimum film thickness ratios are found. The cause of these behaviors was found in the change of the convergent shape. When the ellipticity was varied, the Poiseuille flows parallel and transverse to the entrainment direction were significantly modified and these modifications were quantitatively analyzed for the different cases. The competition between the Couette and the Poiseuille flows was totally different between the narrow and the wide elliptical contact, and this change was responsible for the film thickness variations with ellipticity. Ellipticity also had an effect on friction as it influenced the maximum pressure which in turn impacts the fluid viscosity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (12) ◽  
pp. 1585-1600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riadh Autay ◽  
Ahmed Njeh ◽  
Fakhreddine Dammak

Mechanical and tribological behaviors of polyamide 66 reinforced by various weight fractions of short glass fiber were investigated. All studied materials were subjected to accelerated hygrothermal aging tests. Three-point bending flexural tests were carried out to determine the mechanical behavior. Reciprocating tribotester was employed to determine friction and wear behaviors. Tribological tests were carried out, without lubrication and under ambient conditions. Ball on flat contact configuration was adopted for friction tests. Wear tests were carried out against an abrasive counterface. Results showed that flexural strength and elastic modulus increased when increasing glass fiber rate for all tested materials. In the contrary, the coefficient of friction and the wear resistance decreased. Results showed that the hygrothermal aging decreased the flexural features and increased the coefficient of friction. The effect of hygrothermal aging on the wear resistance depends on the reinforcement rate.


Lubricants ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 82 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gonçalves ◽  
Armando Campos ◽  
Jorge Seabra

The film thickness of a ball-on-disc contact lubricated with four greases of different formulations was measured under different operating conditions until starvation. Two polymer-thickened greases and two lithium-thickened greases, formulated with base oils of different nature and/or viscosity, were tested. The central film thickness was measured under constant operating conditions (load, temperature, slide-to-roll ratio) varying only the entrainment speed. In a separate test, the film thickness was measured over time with all operating conditions set to constant. Pictures of the film thickness profile across the contact area were also registered. The results were compared with the fully flooded results. The coefficient of friction (COF) was measured in a ball-on-disc contact under equal operating conditions and the results were correlated with the film thickness findings. The different grease formulations and the influence of the operating conditions on the film thickness and COF were discussed. The polymer thickened the greases, promoting lower COF and higher film thickness, especially when there is thickener material crossing the contact which happens quite often for these greases.


Author(s):  
Matthew Cowap ◽  
Kurt Beschorner

Slip and fall accidents are a major source of occupational accidents. The coefficient of friction (CoF) that is required for gait is approximately 0.2. Floor roughness has been demonstrated to affect the available CoF. Building on this knowledge, this research aims to investigate the effect of changing floor roughness on two components of friction: adhesion and hysteresis. The experiments were carried out using a custom developed pin-on-disk type tribometer. Two common types of rubber shoe material, with Shore A hardness 50 and 95, were slid over ceramic tiles that were prepared to different roughness levels. The tiles were abraded using aluminum oxide media (commonly called “sand blasting”). Three levels of roughness were achieved, measured using the average peak height (Rz) with a stylus profilometer: 16.6 μm, 24.3 μm, and 34.6 μm. The experiments were conducted at 0.01 m sec-1 at a contact pressure of 266.1 kPa under ambient conditions to specifically examine the role of adhesion and hysteresis in the absence of hydrodynamic effects. The coefficient of friction was recorded without lubricant (dry) and lubricated with: 2% detergent solution, canola oil, and SAE 75W140 gear oil. Hysteresis was measured with SAE 75W140 because the high lubricity of the gear oil minimizes adhesion. Adhesion in dry and wet conditions was measured by subtracting the hysteresis from the coefficient of friction. Hysteresis was found to increase from 0.101 to 0.358 for the hard rubber and from 0.269 to 0.611 for the soft rubber when floor roughness was increased from 16.6 μm and 34.6 μm. Higher roughness was also associated with a decrease in dry adhesion from 0.651 to 0.277 for the hard rubber and from 0.435 to 0.041 for the soft rubber. Wet adhesion decreased from 0.285 to 0.049 for soft rubber on detergent. Canola oil, for both hard and soft, and detergent combined with hard rubber did not make a significant difference in the adhesion available. Hysteresis, which is a more robust form of friction in the presence of fluids, was found to be positively correlated with floor roughness while adhesion was negatively correlated with roughness. This indicates that increased floor friction is associated with better floor slip-resistance in the presence of fluids. Abrasively blasting floor tiles to increase the roughness of the floor surface, may lead to improved boundary lubrication friction, particularly when accompanied by soft shoe materials.


2013 ◽  
Vol 303-306 ◽  
pp. 2704-2707
Author(s):  
Kai Way Li ◽  
Chan Chi Lin

A laboratory study was conducted to measure the coefficient of friction between the foot and the floor under three surface and two foot sliding speed conditions. A force platform was adopted to measure the ground reaction force (GRF) of the foot on the floor. The coefficient of friction was calculated as the ratio of vertical and horizontal GRF. Five male subjects were recruited. They were requested to slide their right foot on the tested floor which was mounted on the force platform. The results indicated that floor material, surface condition, and foot sliding speed were all significant factor affecting the COF. Ceramic tile had lower COF under all surface and sliding speed conditions as compared to steel, wood, and vinyl tiles.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (9) ◽  
pp. 587-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Autay ◽  
S Missaoui ◽  
J Mars ◽  
F Dammak

Tensile, flexural, wear, and friction behaviors of polyamide 6.6 (PA 66) reinforced by different weight fractions of short glass- iber were investigated. Three-point bending flexural tests in addition to monotonic tensile tests were carried out to determine the mechanical behavior. Reciprocating friction tests were carried out without lubrication under ambient conditions. A ball-on-flat contact configuration was adopted for all tests. Reciprocating wear tests were carried out against a silicon carbide abrasive paper. Results show that the reinforcement influenced mechanical and tribological behaviors and that the orientation of glass fiber has an effect on the friction behavior. Increasing the weight fraction of glass fiber increases the ultimate strength, the flexural strength, and the elastic modulus but decreases the elongation at break. Increasing the weight fraction of glass fiber decreases the coefficient of friction and increases the wear rate. For high weight fractions, when sliding parallel to the glass fiber direction, the coefficient of friction is smaller than which is measured in the perpendicular direction. Abrasive wear mechanism of wear was illustrated via scanning electron micrographs.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document