| Abstract Scope |
The ski industry has developed kicking and gliding waxes for use in Nordic skiing; however, the material performance is not well understood, and the methods for testing glide performance are far from standardized. The ski industry has hypothesized that the coefficient of friction and the hydrophobicity of the ski wax material are the leading contributors to glide performance. However, the properties of short-chain and low molecular weight polymer materials are highly dependent upon temperature and interfacial conditions. In this work, we present the material properties of Nordic ski waxes as a function of temperature and moisture content at the ski wax surface, specifically the coefficient of friction, the contact angle, the thermal properties, and other parameters that may play a role in the performance of ski wax materials. |