• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.14-20
• /
• 2013

All most of floors can become less slip resistant with wear. The deterioration of slip resistance can often occur rapidly. So relatively new products can become hazardous within a short period of time. The main objective of this study was the comparison of slip resistance variations caused by traffic wear and accelerative wear. The second objective was to ascertain the effect of wear, and to find out the causes of slip resistance change. Although statistical differences were observed between results of traffic wear and accelerative wear, the trend of the variations of slip resistance caused by traffic wear and accelerative wear was very similar. The measured slip resistance of tested floor changed up to 29%(and 26.5%) after 100,000 steps(and 750 cycles). As the traffic wear and accelerative wear were progressed, the surface roughness of the tested floor became smoother, and so the floor became more slippery under the wet condition. The abraded(worn out) floor surface tended to become hydrophilic surface, while the new floor surface tended to show hydrophobic nature. This phenomenon would change the wettability of floor surface, and the wettability would affect the variation of slip resistance.