In-Vivo Human Skin to Textiles Friction Measurements

Abstract

We report on a measurement system to determine highly reliable and accurate friction properties of textiles as needed for example as input to garment simulation software. Our investigations led to a set-up that allows to characterize not just textile to textile but also textile to in-vivo human skin tribological properties and thus to fundamental knowledge about genuine wearer interaction in garments. The method of test conveyed in this paper is measuring concurrently and in a highly time resolved manner the normal force as well as the resulting shear force caused by a friction subject intending to slide out of the static friction regime and into the dynamic regime on a test bench. Deeper analysis of various influences is enabled by extending the simple model following Coulomb's law for rigid body friction to include further essential parameters such as contact force, predominance in the yarn's orientation and also skin hydration. This easy-to-use system enables to measure reliably and reproducibly both static and dynamic friction for a variety of friction partners including human skin with all its variability there might be.