The surface roughness of a rubber soling material determines the coefficient of friction on water-lubricated surfaces

摘要

For more than a decade, evidence has been accumulating that points to the fact that the microscopic roughness of the footwear soling surface is a major de- terminant of slip-resistance on lubricated surfaces, but conclusive experimental proof has been lacking. This article describes an experiment in which five pairs of shoes were soled with the same rubber compound. Four of the pairs were abraded by different grades of grit to produce a range of roughness values. The coefficient of friction(CoF)of the five solings was then measured repeatedly by the walking traction method on wet surfaces including glazed wall tiles, vinyl asbestos coated with the wax floor polish, and both sides of a sheet of float glass.