SOLE OF A SOLDIER Rockdale Magnet School For Science and Technology Tuesday, November 17, 2015

INTRODUCTION Personal Interest in Military Combat boots are issued to every solider – Sole design is based on the terrain and intended use of the boot

GOAL Design a mixed-use combat boot for the 21 st century soldier who encounters deserts, mountains, and jungles Develop a new sole design that would out perform (have better all around traction) than currently used designs

BACKGROUND Ripple, Sahara, Panama, Lug, Vibram®Sierra, and Basic (ALTAMA®, 2008) Factors of Traction: – surface’s material properties – the macroscopic and microscopic shape or "roughness“ – force of contact – area of contact – contaminants at the materials boundary including lubricants and adhesives – (Bowden and Tabor, 1986)

MATERIALS

Sierra DesignPanama Design

MOLD DESIGN

SAHARA BOOT DESIGN

PANAMA BOOT DESIGN

PROTOTYPE BOOT DESIGN

Facing Up TABLES BEFORE CLEANING AVERAGE (cm) ANGLE31.41°35.3°35.09° COEFFICIENT OF FRICTION AVERAGE (cm) ANGLE33.12°32.33°36.24° COEFFICIENT OF FRICTION Facing Down Sahara Panama Proto

TABLES AVERAGE (cm) ANGLE32.78°34.19°36.34° COEFFICIENT OF FRICTION AFTER CLEANING AVERAGE (cm) ANGLE32.96°34.31°34.48° COEFFICIENT OF FRICTION Facing UpFacing Down Sahara Panama Proto

BEFORE

AFTER

CONCLUSION Overall Goal: redesign a military combat boot sole that has significant all around traction for the 21 st century soldier Prototype design outperformed the two control combat boots

ASSUMPTIONS AND SOURCES OF ERROR Test simulates real world applications One of the boots reacted with the rubber compound Lubrication on a few of the boots while testing

FUTURE RESEARCH Test different sole designs – Make smaller incremental changes Test different sole materials – Mixture of common vulcanized rubbers? Work with the military to overcome government boundaries and access issues

Acknowledgements Ken Shinmura – Assisted with Inventor Software Research Teacher – Mrs. Amanda Baskett Rockdale Magnet School – Funding

REFERENCES 1936 The intuition. Retrieved December 15, 2008, from Vibram Web site: ALTAMA, Mil-Spec. Retrieved May 17, 2008, from Altama Military Footwear Web site: Blau, P.J. (1996). Friction Science and Technology. New York. Dekker Bowden, F.P.; Tabor, D (1973). Friction: An introduction to Tribology. New York Anchor Press/Doubleday Bowden, F.P.; Tabor, D (1986). The Friction and Lubrication of Solids. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press Countermeasure, (2006, February). Fatal Falls. CM Countermeasure, 27, Kaufma, K. (2000). Military training-related injuries surveillance, research, and prevention. American Journal of Preventative Medicine, v181, 1, Researchers use cutting edge technology to help develop new Marine combat boot. (1998, March). Navy Medicine, 89(2), 28. Retrieved August 21, 2008, from AP Science database. (Document ID: ). Ruina, A (1983). Slip instability & State Variable Friction Laws. Journal of Geophysical Research. 88,

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