The tribological behaviour of a newly developed water absorbable Skin Equivalent compared to isolated human skin during sliding tests

摘要

This paper focusses on the frictional response of a new Epidermal Skin Equivalent (ESE), developed to mimic the human skin performance during testing of consumer products interactions with skin. The tribological results of this model were compared to the frictional response of isolated human skin and commercially available skin substitutes including Lorica, Cutinova Hydro, Silicone Skin L7350, and pure PDMS. The tribological performance of these materials was evaluated against five different counter surfaces: PA6.6, PE, ball bearing steel AISI 52100, stainless steel AISI 316 and NBR at two environmental conditions: normal humidity conditions (25°C and 50% relative humidity) and high temperature and humidity conditions (37°C and 80% relative humidity). The applied force corresponded to a range of pressures of 70 to 90 kPa and the experiments were conducted at 50 mm/s. The human skin samples, obtained from healthy people after surgical non-related problems with skin, were provided by the University Medical Centre Nijmegen (The Netherlands). Their tribological behaviour was studied at normal conditions and their surface was examined by confocal microscopy to determine the changes after the frictional tests. The tribological results confirmed the better agreement of the ESE, in terms of tribological performance, with that of the isolated human skin, compared to the commercially available substitutes.