Abstract:
Healthy adult rabbit skin was used instead of stump skin. By using an UMT-II tribometer to simulate stump skin / prosthetic socket interface under friction behaviors of the sticking and the intermediate regimes, the friction coefficient,
Ft-D curve, energy dissipation and traumas mechanism of rabbit skin were investigated. The results show that under the normal force of 0.5 N or 3.5 N,the friction behavior of rabbit skin changed from the sticking regime to the intermediate regime with the reciprocating displacement from ± 2.5 mm to ± 5 mm, consequently, energy dissipation in the process of reciprocating friction increased. Because the rabbit skin friction coefficient and energy dissipation in the intermediate regime were higher than that in the sticking regime, the degree of skin traumas was more severe. Compared with human hands or feet skin, the cutin layer of rabbit skin was thin, so it is difficult to form a friction blister.