Validation of Walkway Tribometers: Establishing a Reference Standard

:  Tribometers are mechanical devices used to measure walkway coefficient of friction (COF) for the purpose of assessing slip risk. The purpose of this study was to define a tribometer reference standard and use it to assess the performance of various tribometers. Eighty subjects were randomly assig...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of forensic sciences 2010-03, Vol.55 (2), p.366-370
Main Authors: Powers, Christopher M., Blanchette, Mark G., Brault, John R., Flynn, Jim, Siegmund, Gunter P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
coefficient of friction
forensic science
Forensic sciences
Friction
reference standard
slips
Tribology
Validation studies
walkway safety
walkway tribometer
Walkways
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Summary::  Tribometers are mechanical devices used to measure walkway coefficient of friction (COF) for the purpose of assessing slip risk. The purpose of this study was to define a tribometer reference standard and use it to assess the performance of various tribometers. Eighty subjects were randomly assigned to walk across one of four wet walkway surfaces (polished black granite, porcelain, vinyl composition tile, and ceramic tile) to establish the relative slipperiness of each surface. Eleven tribometers were subsequently used to measure and rank the COF of all four surfaces. Our results revealed that only four of the 11 tribometers (Wessex pendulum, Sigler pendulum, Mark II, and Mark III) met our compliance criteria by both correctly ranking all four surfaces and differentiating between surfaces of varying degrees of slipperiness. Our protocol demonstrates that human gait‐based measures of slipperiness can be used to create reference standards against which tribometer measurements can be validated.
ISSN:0022-1198
1556-4029
DOI:10.1111/j.1556-4029.2009.01283.x