Determination of Dynamic Coefficient of Friction of Pedestrian Pavement Using British Pendulum Test

Human slipping on pedestrian pavements and other forms of paved areas is a problem worthy of great attention. Many countries have put forward test methods for assessing pedestrian slip resistance performance of pavements and floors. The British pendulum test (BPT) is one of the most common form of devices used for the purpose around the world to determine the slip resistance, and British pendulum number (BPN) is one of the most important parameters for pedestrian pavement safety evaluation. Although widely used as a form of measure of the slip resistance of a test surface, BPN is numerically not equal to 100 times the dynamic coefficient of friction (COF) of the test surface. It is difficult to directly compare and convert BPN and COF. The relationship between BPN and COF is nonlinear and would vary according to the slider force–deflection characteristics of the BPT device concerned. In practice, different units of BPT device would most likely have different slider force–deflection characteristics, and there will be a large deviation between the measurement results of different BPT devices. In this study, a numerical simulation model of BPT based on mechanical theory is proposed, which can convert the measured BPN values into the COF of the test surface to mechanically characterize the slip resistance of the flooring material. By so doing, the problem that the BPN measurements of different BPT devices vary with the force–deflection characteristics of the slider of the BPT device can be effectively solved.