Relationship between Stiffness of Texture Material and Perceived Roughness: A Numerical Analysis

Investigating the relationship between the stiffness of a texture material and perceived roughness could potentially enhance the tactile comfort of industrial products. This study aimed to investigate this relationship when a dottextured surface was scanned across the finger pad, by a numerical simulation model comprising mechanical, neurophysiological, and perceived roughness models. We tested materials with Young’s modulus (E) of 0.05, 0.15, 0.5, 2, 10, and 100 MPa at the surface. The simulation indicated a significant change in perceived roughness at a texture stiffness of E = 2 MPa equivalent to that of the stratum corneum. This study contributes to a better understanding of this relationship and the application of such a numerical model to digital engineering tools for the development of industrial products in digital transformation.