Measuring the Influences of Footwear Shape and Area on the Coefficient of Friction by English XL

This study explores the influences of different footwear shapes and areas on COF by conducting a four factors experiment including five footwear areas, two footwear shapes, two floors with different roughness, and three floor contaminating conditions and the COFs were measured by English XL. The results demonstrate that the footwear area, footwear shape, floor roughness, and floor contamination condition all affect COF significantly. The COFs of square footwear treads are significantly higher than the cofs of round footwear treads. The relationships between shoe sole area and COF were affected by floor roughness dramatically. The relationships between different shoe sole area and COFs did not show any rules. The lower the floor roughness the lower the COFs with the larger shoe sole area under water and detergent contamination conditions.