The Effects of Cut-Off Length on Surface Roughness Parameters and Their Correlation with Transition Friction

Abstract

Friction is widely used as an indicator of surface slipperiness in preventing accidents in slips and falls. Surface roughness affects friction, but it is not clear which surface roughness characteristics are better correlated with friction and, therefore, are preferred as potential interventions. The transition friction between quarry tiles and Neolite under three different mixtures of glycerol and water as contaminants was correlated with the surface parameters generated from the quarry tile surfaces. The surface roughness parameters were measured with three different cut-off lengths (0.8, 2.5 and 8 mm). The results showed that transition friction decreased as the glycerol content in the contaminant was increased due to the lubrication effect. The linear correlation coefficients between the surface roughness parameters and the measured friction increased as the cut-off length was increased from 0.8 to 8 mm. However, average of the maximum height above the mean line in each cut-off length ( Rpm), arithmetical average of surface heights ( Ra), mean height from third highest peak to third lowest valley in each cut-off length ( R3z) and the kernel roughness depth ( Rk) had the strongest correlation with transition friction across three cut-off lengths used.