CLASSIFICATION OF HANDRAILS FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF HUMAN ACTION AND MEASUREMENT OF HUMAN FORCE APPLIED TO HANDRAILS DURING ACCIDENTAL TUMBLING : Experimental study on the strength evaluation method of installed handrails on wall in dwellings (1)

Abstract

Handrails and grab bars are essential to support life of senior citizens and people with disabilities. However, very little technical information is available as to their retrofitting to existing dwellings. The authors intend to propose an evaluation method to judge the effective strength of installed handrail on various wall structures and materials commonly found in Japanese dwellings. In this paper, as the part 1 of the study, we authors report a classification of various handrails from the viewpoint of human action to them and measured forces loaded by humans during accidental tumbling.