Introducing a Test Setup to Measure the Tribological Behavior of Shoe-Surface Interactions under Biomechanically Relevant Conditions

Introduction: The contact mechanism between shoe and surface is crucial in order to avoid slipping and falling, enhance sporting performance or minimize the risk of sport injuries. However, studying this contact mechanism, between footwear and surface, is challenging and violates the traditional Amontons–Coulomb’s law of friction, due to the viscoelastic outsole materials. Hence, replicating the biomechanical test conditions are of great importance, when determining the friction properties of footwear. The aim of this study is to present a test-setup able to replicate biomechanical relevant test conditions.
Approach/Methods: The test-setup consisted of a steel frame designed to maintain the position of a shoe, mounted above a force plate. The force plate is attached on top of a hydraulic platform, which makes it possible to move vertical and horizontal.
Discussion & Significance: This study presents a new test setup that can characterize the tribological behavior of shoe and surface in a traditional way, by following the traditional ISO 13287 standards, but more importantly also being able to add a novel impacting approach to the test of footwear, which is arguably more biomechanically relevant.