Effects of full body harness design on fall arrest performance

Abstract

The use of personal protective equipment, including a safety harness, is one of the basic methods of protection against falls from a height. The presented studies, using an anthropomorphic dummy, identified the effect on the human body of the dangerous phenomena accompanying safety harness performance during fall arrest. The displacement of the dummy in the safety harness, the mutual displacement of the adjustment buckles and the webbing of the harness, the tightening of the straps on the dummy and the impacts exerted on the head of the dummy by the harness elements were considered. The correlation between the design of the safety harness and the parameters and phenomena in question has been demonstrated. It has been shown that for the purposes of assessment of novel harness designs it is necessary to carry out studies utilizing an anthropomorphic dummy in addition to resistance tests.

Keywords:

• personal protective equipment
• full body harness
• fall arrest
• anthropomorphic dummy arrest distance

Acknowledgements

This publication is based on the results of Phase IV of the multi-year program ‘Improvement of Occupational Safety and Working Conditions’, financed in the years 2017–2019 in the area of tasks related to services for the state by the Ministry of Family, Labor, and Social Policy. The program coordinator is the Central Institute for Labour Protection – National Research Institute.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.