الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Polymers are widely used as a flooring material in detention centers, hospitals, factories and washrooms. Thus because they have many advantages such as low manufacturing cost, low shrinkage, high chemical corrosion resistance, low creep, high stiffness and good mechanical properties. In the present work, the main objective is to investigate the effect of hardness and thickness on the friction coefficient and electric static charge generated from the contact and separation as well as sliding of the rubber sole against the tested polymeric materials. Based on the experimental observations, it was found that friction coefficient displayed by sliding of rubber sole against the dry flooring materials, drastically decreased with increasing the hardness of the tested flooring, while increased with increasing normal load. At water and detergent wetted as well as oil lubricated sliding, soft tested rubber showed higher friction coefficient than the harder one. Besides, dry sliding showed significant increase of friction coefficient with increasing material thickness. In the presence of detergent and oil between the sliding surfaces, friction coefficient drastically decreased to values lower than that displayed by water. Presence of sand particles on the flooring increased friction coefficient as the thickness and the load increased. Electric static charge generated by dry sliding decreased with increasing the hardness. Water, detergent and oil lubricated sliding showed relatively lower voltage than that observed for dry sliding. At lubricated sliding, voltage showed drastic decrease with increasing hardness. In the presence of sand,voltage decreased with increasing hardness. Finally, voltage significantly increased with increasing the thickness for all sliding conditions. Water wetted sliding showed lower values than that observed for dry sliding, while detergent sliding showed relatively higher values than that observed for water wetted sliding. Oil lubricated and sand contaminated sliding showed the lowest values. |