Understanding Friction and Wear Behaviours of Smooth Resilient Surfaces: Application for Pedestrian Fall Safety Improvements

The recent literature identified that certain types of smooth floors and flooring materials showed good slip-resistance performance under moderately contaminated situations such as water wet and soapsuds-covered conditions. However, topographic structures of such flat floor/walkway surfaces are sign...

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Main Author: In-Ju Kim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2018-01-01
Series:Advances in Materials Science and Engineering
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/3280279
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author In-Ju Kim
author_facet In-Ju Kim
author_sort In-Ju Kim
collection DOAJ
description The recent literature identified that certain types of smooth floors and flooring materials showed good slip-resistance performance under moderately contaminated situations such as water wet and soapsuds-covered conditions. However, topographic structures of such flat floor/walkway surfaces are significantly changed by wear and tear developments with continuous ambulation. A number of reasons seem to be involved in flooring wear developments, but such changes may result in substantial losses of slip resistance (or traction) functions. Even though the importance of this issue is wide, it is scarce to find any systematic investigations on tribophysical characteristics of smooth floors (<10 µm in Ra roughness) and their wear impacts on traction performance. Moreover, it is difficult to find studies on wear progress of floors and its impacts on pedestrian fall safety assessments. This study focuses on exploring wear activities of smooth resilient floors and disclosing wear consequences on traction properties. To measure slip-resistance features and investigate wear advances of smooth resilient floors, dynamic friction tests were carried out amongst purposely arranged 4 flat specimens (polymethyl methacrylate: PMMA) and 3 shoes. Wear formations and progressions of the PMMA surfaces were methodically evaluated by observing surface profiles during the tests. The test outcomes evidently presented that initial surface features of the PMMA specimens were significantly modified by primary-, secondary-, and shared-wear mechanisms and significantly influenced traction performance. This study may have design applications for the safety enhancements of smooth floors/footpaths to preclude pedestrian fall incidents.
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spelling doaj-art-5bb36afa007941199d9bb0f96f66671f2025-02-03T06:05:56ZengWileyAdvances in Materials Science and Engineering1687-84341687-84422018-01-01201810.1155/2018/32802793280279Understanding Friction and Wear Behaviours of Smooth Resilient Surfaces: Application for Pedestrian Fall Safety ImprovementsIn-Ju Kim0Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, College of Engineering, University of Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, Sharjah, UAEThe recent literature identified that certain types of smooth floors and flooring materials showed good slip-resistance performance under moderately contaminated situations such as water wet and soapsuds-covered conditions. However, topographic structures of such flat floor/walkway surfaces are significantly changed by wear and tear developments with continuous ambulation. A number of reasons seem to be involved in flooring wear developments, but such changes may result in substantial losses of slip resistance (or traction) functions. Even though the importance of this issue is wide, it is scarce to find any systematic investigations on tribophysical characteristics of smooth floors (<10 µm in Ra roughness) and their wear impacts on traction performance. Moreover, it is difficult to find studies on wear progress of floors and its impacts on pedestrian fall safety assessments. This study focuses on exploring wear activities of smooth resilient floors and disclosing wear consequences on traction properties. To measure slip-resistance features and investigate wear advances of smooth resilient floors, dynamic friction tests were carried out amongst purposely arranged 4 flat specimens (polymethyl methacrylate: PMMA) and 3 shoes. Wear formations and progressions of the PMMA surfaces were methodically evaluated by observing surface profiles during the tests. The test outcomes evidently presented that initial surface features of the PMMA specimens were significantly modified by primary-, secondary-, and shared-wear mechanisms and significantly influenced traction performance. This study may have design applications for the safety enhancements of smooth floors/footpaths to preclude pedestrian fall incidents.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/3280279
spellingShingle In-Ju Kim
Understanding Friction and Wear Behaviours of Smooth Resilient Surfaces: Application for Pedestrian Fall Safety Improvements
Advances in Materials Science and Engineering
title Understanding Friction and Wear Behaviours of Smooth Resilient Surfaces: Application for Pedestrian Fall Safety Improvements
title_full Understanding Friction and Wear Behaviours of Smooth Resilient Surfaces: Application for Pedestrian Fall Safety Improvements
title_fullStr Understanding Friction and Wear Behaviours of Smooth Resilient Surfaces: Application for Pedestrian Fall Safety Improvements
title_full_unstemmed Understanding Friction and Wear Behaviours of Smooth Resilient Surfaces: Application for Pedestrian Fall Safety Improvements
title_short Understanding Friction and Wear Behaviours of Smooth Resilient Surfaces: Application for Pedestrian Fall Safety Improvements
title_sort understanding friction and wear behaviours of smooth resilient surfaces application for pedestrian fall safety improvements
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/3280279
work_keys_str_mv AT injukim understandingfrictionandwearbehavioursofsmoothresilientsurfacesapplicationforpedestrianfallsafetyimprovements