Personal fall arrest systems under impact. Numerical simulations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/ic.15.050Keywords:
Safety, personal protection, fall arrest system, harness, impact, numerical simulationAbstract
Personal fall protection systems are set up by EN-363 to avoid or retain people falls safely (without relevant damages). They are the ultimate resource to prevent a fall after other measures being considered. This paper analyses the variables affecting the system behaviour: free fall height, length of retaining rope, stiffness and damping of retaining material, and worker weight. To this end, fall phenomenon has been simulated with finite elements dynamic models with an elastic rope and a rigid ballast. It allows obtain likely values of maximum forces on the injured and over the system during the impact. Results demonstrate the fundamental role of height fall vs. rope length rate (fall factor), which results more important than the fall height itself. The severe values obtained for maximum forces show that future research would include elastoplastic energy absorbers to decrease impact until reasonable values.
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