Tribosystem for determination of footwear slip resistance under high sliding velocities

Slipping is the greatest cause of fall accidents in occupational settings and occurs when the friction between footwear and surface is below what is required during walking. Numerous mechanical test setups that are commercially available or presented in the scientific literature, however, often lack the ability to replicate the biomechanical conditions from laboratoryreproduced slipping events. This implies a normal load of 400N and sliding velocities as high as 2.5 m/s. Especially sliding velocity is rarely tested above 0.5 m/s (0.3 m/s in ISO 13287 – test method for footwear slip resistance) in most mechanical test setups. Since elastomer outsoles are highly dependent on sliding velocity, it is crucial to test footwear slip resistance under higher sliding velocities, than what is currently being done. Hence, the purpose of this study was to design a tribosystem and test footwear slip resistance under high sliding velocities.