Friction control of a resin foam/rubber laminated block material

In this study, we investigate the frictional behavior of an ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) foam/styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) laminated block using a dead-weight-type tribometer to identify the design guidelines for shoe tread patterns to provide variable friction control. The friction coefficient was highest when the ratio of the EVA foam thickness with respect to the total block thickness was high (i.e., 0.2–0.8) because of the increased contact area. Further, the friction coefficient of the laminated block specimen increased with the normalized parameter, which is the ratio of shear deformation and bending deformation in the bulk material. These results indicate that increasing the shear deformation component prevents the detachment of the specimen's trailing edge and maintains the contact area at the specimen–floor interface, resulting in increased friction coefficients. Our observations are expected to contribute to a detailed understanding of how to control the friction of the resin-foam/rubber-laminated block materials.