Contaminant film thickness affects walkway friction measurements
Walkway tribometers are used to measure available friction for evaluating walkway safety and pedestrian slip risk. Numerous variables can affect tribometer measurements, including the type and distribution of contaminants on the surface. Here, we quantified the effect of application method on contam...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-08-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Public Health |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.915140/full |
| _version_ | 1811285703000064000 |
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| author | Dennis D. Chimich Loay Al-Salehi Benjamin S. Elkin Gunter P. Siegmund Gunter P. Siegmund |
| author_facet | Dennis D. Chimich Loay Al-Salehi Benjamin S. Elkin Gunter P. Siegmund Gunter P. Siegmund |
| author_sort | Dennis D. Chimich |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Walkway tribometers are used to measure available friction for evaluating walkway safety and pedestrian slip risk. Numerous variables can affect tribometer measurements, including the type and distribution of contaminants on the surface. Here, we quantified the effect of application method on contaminant film thickness, and the effect of film thickness on tribometer measurements on the four reference walkway surfaces used in ASTM F2508-16e. Distilled water, 0.05% sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) solution, and 0.04% Triton X-100 solution were poured, squirted, and sprayed onto the surfaces to quantify their naturally occurring film thicknesses. These application methods had a significant effect on the resulting film thickness (p < 0.038), with the pour method consistently generating the thickest films and the spray method generating the thinnest films. We then quantified the effect of film thickness for the three contaminants (thickness range 0.3–3.3 mm) on the friction measurements of three common tribometers (Mark IIIB, English XL, and BOT 3000E) on each reference surface. A separate ANOVA was used for each of the 3 × 4 × 3 = 36 combinations of tribometer, surface, and contaminant. Friction measured with the Mark IIIB decreased with increasing film thickness on one surface across all three contaminants and on a second surface with the SLS contaminant. Friction measured with the BOT 3000E was sensitive to film thickness on two surfaces with water and one surface with Triton. The XL was unaffected by contaminant film thickness. Overall, despite significant differences in film thickness with contaminant application method, friction measurements were either insensitive to film thickness or varied only a small amount in all cases except for the Mark IIIB on the roughest surface. Film thickness did not alter the relative slip resistance of the four ASTM F2508 reference surfaces. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T02:48:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b4dbde564c8d4d669f81d3f2e433c658 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-2565 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T02:48:00Z |
| publishDate | 2022-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Public Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-b4dbde564c8d4d669f81d3f2e433c6582022-12-22T03:05:56ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Public Health2296-25652022-08-011010.3389/fpubh.2022.915140915140Contaminant film thickness affects walkway friction measurementsDennis D. Chimich0Loay Al-Salehi1Benjamin S. Elkin2Gunter P. Siegmund3Gunter P. Siegmund4MEA Forensic Engineers & Scientists, Richmond, BC, CanadaDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, CanadaMEA Forensic Engineers & Scientists, Toronto, ON, CanadaMEA Forensic Engineers & Scientists, Richmond, BC, CanadaSchool of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, CanadaWalkway tribometers are used to measure available friction for evaluating walkway safety and pedestrian slip risk. Numerous variables can affect tribometer measurements, including the type and distribution of contaminants on the surface. Here, we quantified the effect of application method on contaminant film thickness, and the effect of film thickness on tribometer measurements on the four reference walkway surfaces used in ASTM F2508-16e. Distilled water, 0.05% sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) solution, and 0.04% Triton X-100 solution were poured, squirted, and sprayed onto the surfaces to quantify their naturally occurring film thicknesses. These application methods had a significant effect on the resulting film thickness (p < 0.038), with the pour method consistently generating the thickest films and the spray method generating the thinnest films. We then quantified the effect of film thickness for the three contaminants (thickness range 0.3–3.3 mm) on the friction measurements of three common tribometers (Mark IIIB, English XL, and BOT 3000E) on each reference surface. A separate ANOVA was used for each of the 3 × 4 × 3 = 36 combinations of tribometer, surface, and contaminant. Friction measured with the Mark IIIB decreased with increasing film thickness on one surface across all three contaminants and on a second surface with the SLS contaminant. Friction measured with the BOT 3000E was sensitive to film thickness on two surfaces with water and one surface with Triton. The XL was unaffected by contaminant film thickness. Overall, despite significant differences in film thickness with contaminant application method, friction measurements were either insensitive to film thickness or varied only a small amount in all cases except for the Mark IIIB on the roughest surface. Film thickness did not alter the relative slip resistance of the four ASTM F2508 reference surfaces.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.915140/fullsurfaceslip resistanceavailable frictiontribometerslip and fallcontaminant |
| spellingShingle | Dennis D. Chimich Loay Al-Salehi Benjamin S. Elkin Gunter P. Siegmund Gunter P. Siegmund Contaminant film thickness affects walkway friction measurements Frontiers in Public Health surface slip resistance available friction tribometer slip and fall contaminant |
| title | Contaminant film thickness affects walkway friction measurements |
| title_full | Contaminant film thickness affects walkway friction measurements |
| title_fullStr | Contaminant film thickness affects walkway friction measurements |
| title_full_unstemmed | Contaminant film thickness affects walkway friction measurements |
| title_short | Contaminant film thickness affects walkway friction measurements |
| title_sort | contaminant film thickness affects walkway friction measurements |
| topic | surface slip resistance available friction tribometer slip and fall contaminant |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.915140/full |
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