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Fundamentals of Pressure, Shear and Friction and Their Effects on the Human Body at Supported Postures

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Bioengineering Research of Chronic Wounds

Part of the book series: Studies in Mechanobiology, Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials ((SMTEB,volume 1))

Abstract

The human body is supported throughout most of life (while we sleep, travel, work and in our spare time). It is estimated that when one is 72 years of age, 62 years have been spent in some form of body support, such as an office chair and a bed. (Goossens 1994).

Body-supporting surfaces are often related to complaints in the neck, back, buttocks, legs and soft tissue (Grieco 1986). Numerous solutions for cushioning the contact area between product and user have been and implemented during the last centuries, but only in the last decades systematic research has been conducted on the underlying mechanical principles and the results of mechanical load imposed on the human skin and muscular skeletal system.

The skin is the interface between body and body support. Within the skin, all kinds of mechanoreceptors continuously monitor the deformation and warn us of damage (pain). The stress-strain relationship shows that there can be a high degree of deformation of the skin (up to 50%) before yield (mechanical damage) occurs. Physiological response however starts at lower deformation of the skin and is more important when evaluating the effect of body support.

Friction turned out to be a significant component factor of mechanical load on the skin (Reichel 1958, Goossens 1994). Friction on the skin consists of three components: the deformation, ploughing and adhesion components. The adhesion component (μa) between skin and support surface is the most important component for body support interfaces and it can be influenced by the choice of material and texture.

In the human body, at places where the mechanical load can become too high on bone, muscle tissue or other tissue, bursae are found. Bursae are found in regions where muscles, tendons, or bones rub against other muscles, tendons, or bones. The bursae function in two ways, lubricating points of friction, and dissipating force by distributing it through a fluid medium. Normally, the bursae produce just enough synovial fluid to reduce friction by reducing the tissue bonding. From an engineer’s point of view, the advantage this provides is that a bursa separates moving tissue, thereby eliminating tissue bonding (μa the adhesion component is relatively small).

Different studies on comfort and discomfort have shown that mechanical load (pressure as well as shear) influences discomfort. It was also concluded that equal pressure and low shear increase the amount of time that passes before discomfort is noticed. A test (Garcia Lechner and Goossens 2003) showed that, on a hard seat surface without sharp edges that produce high pressure, at least 30 minutes will pass before the comfort limit is crossed i.e. there is a feeling of discomfort. This would explain the fact that people do not value the effect of good cushioning (i.e. low shear and equal pressure) during a short test period.

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  1. Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Landbergstraat 15, 2628, CE, Delft, The Netherlands

    R. H. M. Goossens

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  1. Fac. Engineering, Dept. Biomedical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, 69978, Ramat Aviv, Israel

    Amit Gefen

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Goossens, R.H.M. (2009). Fundamentals of Pressure, Shear and Friction and Their Effects on the Human Body at Supported Postures. In: Gefen, A. (eds) Bioengineering Research of Chronic Wounds. Studies in Mechanobiology, Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00534-3_1

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