Citation

Trkov M, Yi J, Liu T, Li K. J. Biomech. Eng. 2018; 140(3): e38251.

Affiliation

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering Rutgers University Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Society of Mechanical Engineers)

DOI

10.1115/1.4038251

PMID

29055127

Abstract

Shoe-floor interactions play a crucial role in determining the possibility of potential slip and fall during human walking. Biomechanical and tribological parameters influence the friction characteristics between the shoe sole and the floor and the existing work mainly focus on experimental studies. In this paper, we present modeling, analysis, and experiments to understand slip and force distributions between the shoe sole and floor surface during human walking. We present results for both soft and hard sole material. The computational approaches for slip and friction force distributions are presented using a spring-beam networks model. The model predictions match the experimentally observed sole deformations with large soft sole deformation at the beginning and the end stages of the stance, which indicates the increased risk for slip. The experiments confirm that the required coefficient of friction and the deformation measurements can be used to predict slip occurrence. Moreover, the deformation and force distribution results provide further understanding and knowledge of slip initiation and termination under various biomechanical conditions.

Language: en