Improving shoe-floor friction in order to reduce slip and fall accidents requires thorough understanding of the factors that contribute to friction. The friction between a sliding viscoelastic material (shoe) and a hard surface (floor) has two major components: adhesion and hysteresis. This study aimed to quantify the effects of floor roughness and sliding speed on adhesion and hysteresis to determine how each component contributes to the coefficient of friction. Experiments were conducted on a pin on disc tribometer using ceramic tiles with three levels of roughness, six sliding speeds, two common shoe materials and four liquid lubricants. Hysteresis was measured using a lubricant that minimised adhesion. Dry and lubricated adhesion was measured by subtracting hysteresis from the coefficient of friction. Analysis of variance regression models were used to determine the contributions of hysteresis, dry adhesion, sliding speed and fluid to lubricated coefficient of friction. Increased floor roughness led to increased hysteresis, while increased sliding speed reduced both adhesion and hysteresis. These findings are consistent with theory that states that larger asperities increase hysteretic deformation and that sliding speed affects deformation and real area of contact between a viscoelastic material and a hard surface. The model correctly predicted 83% of variation in coefficient of friction based on dry adhesion, hysteresis and fluid dependent constants. The sensitivity of hysteresis friction to shoe material and floor roughness indicates that optimising these parameters may be effective at reducing slip accidents on oily floor surfaces.
Understanding the frictional interactions between the shoe and floor during walking is critical to prevention of slips and falls, particularly when contaminants are present. A multiscale finite element model of shoe-floor-contaminant friction was developed that takes into account the surface and material characteristics of the shoe and flooring in microscopic and macroscopic scales. The model calculates shoe-floor coefficient of friction (COF) in boundary lubrication regime where effects of adhesion friction and hydrodynamic pressures are negligible. The validity of model outputs was assessed by comparing model predictions to the experimental results from mechanical COF testing. The multiscale model estimates were linearly related to the experimental results (p < 0.0001). The model predicted 73% of variability in experimentally-measured shoe-floor-contaminant COF. The results demonstrate the potential of multiscale finite element modeling in aiding slip-resistant shoe and flooring design and reducing slip and fall injuries.
Few efforts have attempted to model the tribological interaction of shoe-floor contacting surfaces despite high prevalence of slipping accidents. Hysteresis and adhesion are the two main contributing mechanisms in shoe-floor friction at the microscopic asperity level. This study developed a three-dimensional microscopic finite element model of shoe-floor surfaces to quantify the effect of surface topography, shoe material properties and sliding speed on hysteresis and adhesion friction. The validity of the model was assessed by comparing model predictions to pin-on-disk experimental data. The model predicts that hysteresis friction increases for harder shoe materials, rougher shoe surfaces and rougher floor surfaces, while adhesion increases for smoother shoe surfaces, smoother floor surfaces and decreasing sliding speed. The effects of shoe material and floor roughness on the predicted hysteresis friction values were consistent with the experimental data. The effects of sliding speed on adhesion friction were moderately consistent with the experimental data. In addition, the predicted hysteresis magnitudes were consistent with experimental data. This model is a significant step toward development of a comprehensive shoefloor friction model.
Pressure offloading is critical to diabetic foot ulcer healing and prevention. A novel product has been proposed to achieve this offloading with an insole that can be easily modified for each user. This insole consists of pressurized bubbles that can be selectively perforated and depressurized to redistribute weight to the nonulcer region of the foot. However, the effect of the insole design parameters, for example, bubble height and stiffness, on offloading effectiveness is unknown. To this end, a 3-dimensional finite element model was developed to simulate contact between the rearfoot and insole. The geometry of the calcaneus bone and soft tissue was based on the medical images of an average male patient, and material properties and loading conditions based on the values reported in the literature were used. The model predicts that increasing bubble height and stiffness leads to a more effectively offloaded region. However, the model also predicts that increasing stiffness leads to increasing contact pressures on the surrounding soft tissue. Thus, a combination of insole design parameters was determined, which completely offloads the desired region, while simultaneously reducing the contact pressure on the surrounding soft tissue. This design is expected to aid in diabetic foot ulcer healing and prevention.
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