Abstract
A long-term, comprehensive investigation of carpet comfort is described, and its relationship to measured maximum decelerations recorded by a free-fall missile in strument. Comfort is measured by collecting and averaging scores provided by test panels of 25-51 pedestrians. Maximum decelerations are measured with an impact instrument specially modified for this application. Both comfort and impact data are collected as functions of pedestrian traffic, extending to several hundred thousand passages. The results are for the most part quite consistent and permit comfort ranking of five carpets with attached polyurethane cushions and one noncushion control, as well as the establishment of a preliminary correlation between subjective comfort and maximum decelerations obtained with the impact instrument. Relationships of the latter sort may provide a convenient means for rating and tracking the decline in walking comfort of floor covering systems.
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