Barefoot-Pedestrian Tribometry: In Vivo Method of Measurement of Available Friction between the Human Heel and the Walkway

Besser, Marcus P.; Marpet, Mark I.; Medoff, Howard

doi:10.2486/indhealth.46.51

Cited by 9 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…For comparable contact pressures, the mean friction coefficients of fingers and the edge of the hand against wet smooth glass were 0.14 ± 0.03 [82]. Other studies investigating the friction of foot skin on wet floor surfaces also found critical friction coefficients between 0.1 and 0.2 for a range of smooth materials such as glazed ceramics, steel and polished marbles [56,113,114].…”

Section: Physical Friction Mechanisms In Wet Skin Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 82%

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Tribology of Skin: Review and Analysis of Experimental Results for the Friction Coefficient of Human Skin

2011

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In this review, we discuss the current knowledge on the tribology of human skin and present an analysis of the available experimental results for skin friction coefficients. Starting with an overview on the factors influencing the friction behaviour of skin, we discuss the up-to-date existing experimental data and compare the results for different anatomical skin areas and friction measurement techniques. For this purpose, we also estimated and analysed skin contact pressures applied during the various friction measurements. The detailed analyses show that substantial variations are a characteristic feature of friction coefficients measured for skin and that differences in skin hydration are the main cause thereof, followed by the influences of surface and material properties of the contacting materials. When the friction coefficients of skin are plotted as a function of the contact pressure, the majority of the literature data scatter over a wide range that can be explained by the adhesion friction model. The case of dry skin is reflected by relatively low and pressureindependent friction coefficients (greater than 0.2 and typically around 0.5), comparable to the dry friction of solids with rough surfaces. In contrast, the case of moist or wet skin is characterised by significantly higher (typically [1) friction coefficients that increase strongly with decreasing contact pressure and are essentially determined by the mechanical shear properties of wet skin. In several studies, effects of skin deformation mechanisms contributing to the total friction are evident from friction coefficients increasing with contact pressure. However, the corresponding friction coefficients still lie within the range delimited by the adhesion friction model. Further research effort towards the analysis of the microscopic contact area and mechanical properties of the upper skin layers is needed to improve our so far limited understanding of the complex tribological behaviour of human skin.

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Section: Physical Friction Mechanisms In Wet Skin Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Also the question of walking barefoot safely versus slipping on a wet floor represents an ergonomic topic that is closely related to the tribology of human skin [56][57][58]. There have been approaches to complement experimental investigations by numerical simulations, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tribology of Skin: Review and Analysis of Experimental Results for the Friction Coefficient of Human Skin

2011

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“…Variables in the questionnaire Age The age of the subject is expressed in years. In the literature, there is no consensus on the contribution of age on the frictional properties (Asserin et al, 2000;Besser et al, 2008;Childs and Henson, 2007;Cua et al, 1990;Fagiani et al, 2011;Gerhardt et al, 2009;Lewis et al, 2000;Pailler-Mattei and Zahouani, 2006;Zhu et al, 2011), but the influence on the skin's properties has been widely accepted (Arumugam et al, 1994;Asserin et al, 2000;Edwards and Marks, 1995;Flynn et al, 2011;Gross et al, 1992;James et al, 1994;Kvistedal and Nielsen, 2007;Pailler-Mattei and Zahouani, 2006;Widmaier et al, 2006;Wilmore and Costill, 2004;Zahouani et al, 2011;Zhu et al, 2011), for example that the skin relief increases with increasing age (Asserin et al, 2000;Flynn et al, 2011;Gerhardt et al, 2009;Koudine et al, 2000;Zahouani et al, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The division in age categories shows that the coefficient of friction is lowest for the 30-50 year old category. In skin friction literature, there is no consensus on the effect of age on the coefficient of friction: some studies find a relationship (Asserin et al, 2000;Childs and Henson, 2007;Fagiani et al, 2011;Lewis et al, 2000;Pailler-Mattei and Zahouani, 2006;Zhu et al, 2011), while others find no significant differences (Besser et al, 2008;Cua et al, 1990;Gerhardt et al, 2009;Gitis and Sivamani, 2004). The mechanisms by which the age of the subject would influence the coefficient of friction remains unclear from the literature.…”

Section: Influential Variables For Skin Friction Hydration Of the Skmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most tribological studies on skin demonstrated that there are no significant gender differences for the coefficient of friction (Besser et al, 2008;Cua et al, 1990;Gerhardt et al, 2008b;Gerhardt et al, 2009;Gitis and Sivamani, 2004;Sivamani et al, 2003). There are some gender differences for skin properties (Flynn et al, 2011;Gerhardt et al, 2008b;James et al, 1994;Kvistedal and Nielsen, 2007;Zhu et al, 2011) such as elasticity (Dick, 1947).…”

Section: Gendermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Variables influencing the frictional behaviour of in vivo human skin

Veijgen

Masen

Heide

2013

Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials

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In the past decades, skin friction research has focused on determining which variables are important to affect the frictional behaviour of in vivo human skin. Until now, there is still limited knowledge on these variables. This study has used a large dataset to identify the effect of variables on the human skin, subject characteristics and environmental conditions on skin friction. The data are obtained on 50 subjects (34 males and 16 females). Friction measurements represent the friction between in vivo human skin and an aluminium sample, assessed on three anatomical locations. The coefficient of friction increased significantly (p<0.05) with increasing age, increasing ambient temperature and increasing relative air humidity. A significant inversely proportional relationship was found between friction and both the amount of hair present on the skin and the height of the subject. Other outcome variables in this study were the hydration of the skin and the skin temperature.

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