Impact-reduction effect of tatami floor mat made of nonwoven fabric for head injuries in fall accidents

Abstract

Recently, with the rapid increase in aging population, there is a growing interest in the development of a high-quality living environment, especially in terms of safety. In particular, injuries due to fall accidents have serious after-effects and can sometimes even be fatal. In order to reduce the impact of fall accidents, floor coverings with a buffering effect are used. However, floor coverings have some limitations in terms of thickness from the perspective of ease of construction. Therefore, the buffering effect is limited. This study proposes a high-buffering technique for reducing fall-related head impacts using a high-performance nonwoven fabric combined with a rigid plate. Additionally, it verifies the shock absorption performance of this structure. The analysis confirmed that it is possible to achieve high shock absorption in fall accidents by using a tatami mat of thickness 55 mm, even with flooring as thin as 16 mm. Tatami mats using nonwoven fabrics as buffering materials exhibit high buffering performance against head impacts by combining nonwoven fabrics of appropriate density and thickness with core boards of adequate rigidity. As a result, a range of Tatami mat modulus, thickness and density was identified that provided about 70% reduction in peak head acceleration.