‫قــسم الهندســة الميكانيكـــية‬

2024-2025 ‫السالمة المهنية‬

REPORT [1]

FALL PROTECTION SYSTEMS

SAFETY AND HEALTH

Name: Malak Ahmed Gaafar Ali

BN: 11240190

Submitted to:
PROF. DR/ IBRAHIM MUBARAK

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

HELWAN UNIVERSITY
HELWAN – CAIRO
CONTENTS:
1- Definition of fall protection

2- Why is fall protection important?

3- Fall Protection Systems

4- Fall Factors

5- Derivation and impact force

6- Effect of friction

7- Hierarchy of Fall Protection

8- Fall protection solutions

9- Testing of fall protection systems

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Fall protection:
Fall protection is the use of controls designed to protect personnel from falling or in
the event they do fall, to stop them without causing severe injury. Typically, fall
protection is implemented when working at height, but may be relevant when
working near any edge, such as near a pit or hole, or performing work on a steep
surface. Many of these incidents are preventable when proper precautions are taken,
making fall protection training not only critical, but also required for all construction
workers. Fall Protection for Construction identifies common hazards and explains
important safety practices to help ensure every team member is prepared to recognize
fall hazards on the job and understand how to keep themselves and others safe.
There are four generally accepted categories of fall protection: fall elimination, fall
prevention, fall arrest and administrative controls. According to the US Department
of Labor, falls account for 8% of all work-related trauma injuries leading to
death. Federal statutes, standards and regulations in the United States pertaining to
the requirements for employers to provide fall protection are administered by OSHA.

Why is fall protection important?

Falls are among the most common causes of serious work related injuries and deaths.
Employers must set up the work place to prevent employees from falling off of
overhead platforms, elevated work stations or into holes in the floor and walls .

Fall Protection Systems:

There are 2 basic fall protection systems:
• Passive Systems - Fall Prevention - Guardrails, safety nets, floor covers, catch
platforms, etc.
• Active Systems - Personal Fall Protection - Safety belts and body harnesses.
Passive systems, such as guardrails, are the preferred system of fall protection. If
passive systems cannot be utilized, then personal fall protection is required.

Common Passive Systems

- Guardrails
are required at 7½’ high on open:
• Edges of floors and roofs

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• Scaffolds
• Runways, ramps
• Elevated platforms

Major design specifications:

• Constructed of wood or equivalent material.
• Top rail at 42” to 45” and a midrail.
• Wooden posts must be no more than 8’ apart.
• Top rail must withstand 200 lbs load in any direction.

- Safety nets

are good for high entry ways and cathedral ceiling areas of
residential homes. They must be installed according to
manufacturer’s instructions.

- Floor covers

need to be provided for all floor openings, hatchways, floor

holes, and skylight openings regardless of the fall heights.
Floor openings can be alternatively guarded by guardrails.

- Wall openings

that are greater than 30” high and 18” wide need to be
protected with guardrails when the bottom of the opening is
less than 36” above the working surface and the fall is more
than 4’.

- Ladder openings
need to be guarded with off-set guardrails or swinging gate
must be provided.

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Common Active Systems

Components of an active personal fall protection system:

• Anchorage point must support adequate loads.

• Harness (or body belt for fall restraint or positioning) must
be worn as per manufacturer instructions.
• Connector (lanyard) must be adjusted so worker will not
reach the ground below.
• Free fall distance must never exceed 6 feet.

Types of active personal fall protection systems:

1. Personal Fall Arrest System

2. Personal Fall Restraint System
3. Positioning Devices

Personal Fall Arrest System

• Use harnesses, not body belts.

• Use shock absorbing lanyard with 2 locking snap hooks.
• Anchorage point must support 5,000 lbs.
• Inspect before use.
• Inspect & document each system at least twice a year.
• Plan for a prompt rescue.

Personal Fall Restraint System

• The fall restraint equipment should be set and adjusted so

there is no free fall over the edge.
• A harness or body belt may be used.
• The anchorage point must support 4 times the intended load.

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Positioning Devices

• A harness or body belt may be used

• The device must be set and adjusted so there is no more than
2’ free fall.
• The anchorage point must support 2 times the intended load
or 3,000 lbs, whichever is greater.

Fall Factors:
When a rope catches a falling load, the forces generated are
based on the weight of the load, the distance that the load
falls, and the length of the rope between the load and the
anchor. The relationship between the length of the rope and
the distance the load falls is called the fall factor. The fall

factor is calculated by dividing the distance that the load falls

by the length of the rope.

For example, if a load falls 4 feet when secured by 8 feet of rope, the fall factor is 0.5.

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It's the Factor:

It is not intuitive, but falling 20 feet on 40 feet of

rope creates similar forces, and the same fall
factor, as falling 4 feet on 8 feet of rope or falling
1 foot on 2 feet of rope—a 0.5 fall factor.

Of course, the likelihood that the rescuer will be

injured during the fall by hitting other objects is
much greater during a 20-foot fall than in a 4-foot
fall, but the impact forces will be similar.
The other non-inconsequential risk is hitting the ground. Falling when you are 10 feet
above the ground while attached to 11 feet of rope is bad.

The Danger Zone:

The fall factor math works because it compares the distance

the load falls with the amount of rope that can absorb the
energy by stretching. Even if the rescuer only takes a small
fall while attached to a very short rope, the forces can be very
high. For example, falling a meter on a meter of rope, a fall
factor of 1.0, generates tremendous force.
The greatest risk of a high fall factor accident is when there is
slack in the system and you are close to the anchor. For
rescuers, this is when we are approaching the edge. And if
you increase the load by combining a rescuer and patient, the
forces can be gear-snapping.

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Maximum Fall Factor:

Generally speaking, the maximum fall factor for rescuers and

climbers is 2.0. This happens when the rescuer falls twice the
length of his rope. Falling twice the length of the rope generates a
2.0 fall factor regardless of whether the climber falls 2 feet on 1
foot of rope or falls 20 feet on 10 feet of rope. A 2.0 fall factor is
most likely to occur when a rescuer is tied into an anchor with a
relatively short piece of material, climbs that distance above the
anchor, and falls. A 2.0 fall factor is almost certain to cause
injuries unless there is something in the system to absorb the
impact.
It is possible, although unusual, to have a fall factor that is greater than 2.0. This can
happen if the rope attachment can travel, as in this illustration which shows a 4.0 fall
factor.

How Much is Too Much?

OSHA specifies a maximum fall distance of 6 feet regardless of the fall factor.
Although they don't specify the maximum fall factor, they do specify that the
maximum force must not exceed 4 kN (900 pounds) when using a body belt and 8 kN
(1800 pounds) with a body harness.

The following data were generated using this calculator and assume that the rope has
10% elongation. (Note that this calculator makes assumptions that we haven't
validated).

A 165 pound (75 kg) rescuer who experiences a 0.25 fall factor (e.g., falling 2 feet on
8 feet of rope) will generate ~4 kN of force (the maximum for a body belt).
A 165 pound (75 kg) rescuer who experiences a 2.0 fall factor (e.g., falling 6 feet on
3 feet of rope) would generate ~6 kN.
A 225 pound (100 kg) rescuer who experiences a 0.25 fall factor (e.g., falling 2 feet
on 8 feet of rope) will generate ~4 kN of force (the maximum for a body belt).
A 225 pound (100 kg) rescuer who experiences a 1.5 fall factor (e.g., falling 6 feet on
4 feet of rope) would generate ~8 kN.

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Derivation and impact force:

The impact force is defined as the maximum tension in the rope when a climber falls.
We first state an equation for this quantity and describe its interpretation, and then
show its derivation and how it can be put into a more convenient form.

Equation for the impact force and its interpretation:

When modeling the rope as an undamped harmonic oscillator (HO) the impact
force Fmax in the rope is given by:

where mg is the climber's weight, h is the fall height and k is the spring constant of
the portion of the rope that is in play.
We will see below that when varying the height of the fall while keeping the fall
factor fixed, the quantity hk stays constant.
There are two factors of two involved in the interpretation of this equation. First, the
maximum force on the top piece of protection is roughly 2Fmax, since the gear acts as
a simple pulley. Second, it may seem strange that even when f=0, we
have Fmax=2mg (so that the maximum force on the top piece is approximately 4mg).
This is because a factor-zero fall is still a fall onto a slack rope. The average value of
the tension over a full cycle of harmonic oscillation will be mg, so that the tension
will cycle between 0 and 2mg.

Derivation of the equation:

Conservation of energy at rope's maximum elongation xmax gives

The maximum force on the climber is Fmax-mg. It is convenient to express things in

terms of the elastic modulus E = k L/q which is a property of the material that the

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rope is constructed from. Here L is the rope's length and q its cross-sectional area.
Solution of the quadratic gives

Other than fixed properties of the system, this form of the equation shows that the
impact force depends only on the fall factor.
Using the HO model to obtain the impact force of real climbing ropes as a function of
fall height h and climber's weight mg, one must know the experimental value for E of
a given rope. However, rope manufacturers give only the rope’s impact force F0 and
its static and dynamic elongations that are measured under standard UIAA fall
conditions: A fall height h0 of 2 × 2.3 m with an available rope length L0 = 2.6m leads
to a fall factor f0 = h0/L0 = 1.77 and a fall velocity v0 = (2gh0)1/2 = 9.5 m/s at the end of
falling the distance h0. The mass m0 used in the fall is 80 kg. Using these values to
eliminate the unknown quantity E leads to an expression of the impact force as a
function of arbitrary fall heights h, arbitrary fall factors f, and arbitrary gravity g of
the form:

Note that keeping g0 from the derivation of "Eq" based on UIAA test into the
above Fmax formula assures that the transformation will continue to be valid for
different gravity fields, as over a slope making less than 90 degrees with the
horizontal. This simple undamped harmonic oscillator model of a rope, however,
does not correctly describe the entire fall process of real ropes. Accurate
measurements on the behaviour of a climbing rope during the entire fall can be
explained if the undamped harmonic oscillator is complemented by a non-linear term
up to the maximum impact force, and then, near the maximum force in the rope,
internal friction in the rope is added that ensures the rapid relaxation of the rope to its
rest position.

Effect of friction:
When the rope is clipped into several carabiners between the climber and the belayer,
an additional type of friction occurs, the so-called dry friction between the rope and
particularly the last clipped carabiner. "Dry" friction (i.e., a frictional force that is
velocity-independent) leads to an effective rope length smaller than the available
length L and thus increases the impact force.

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Hierarchy of Fall Protection:
The Hierarchy of Fall Protection is
the preferred order of control to
eliminate or reduce fall hazards. This
methodology mirrors common safety
practices for hazard abatement
beginning with elimination and
ending with administrative controls.
Using the data collected from the fall
hazard assessments, each solution in
the hierarchy can be applied to each
hazard.

Definition: Hierarchy of fall protection

A ranked or graded series of fall protection solutions ranging from the best solution
to the worst. In order of best to worst, these solutions are: Hazard Elimination,
Passive Fall Protection, Fall Restraint, Fall Arrest, and Administrative Controls.

1. Hazard Elimination

The preferred solution to all fall hazards is elimination. The reason for exposure to
the fall hazard is challenged and evaluated to determine if a change in the procedure,
practice, location or equipment will eliminate exposure to the fall hazard. Specifying
HVAC (Heating, Venting and Air Conditioning) equipment be located on the ground,
or in an equipment room rather than by the edge of the roof, is an example of hazard
elimination.
Best Practice
The hierarchy should be applied to any hazard before buying inappropriate equipment
or systems. By evaluating a fall hazard using the hierarchy, the best solution is often
very evident.

2. Passive Fall Protection

Physical barriers like guardrails around unprotected edges and covers over holes are
examples of passive fall protection.
Passive protection is generally considered to provide a higher level of safety since the
opportunity for error is less than using personal protective equipment (PPE). The
initial costs of passive protection, while possibly high, are often more efficient than

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the long-term costs of PPE. However, passive protection may not be warranted if the
frequency and duration of exposure to the fall hazard is limited.
An exhaustive hazard assessment provides the information needed to make these
kinds of decisions to maximize cost-effectiveness.

3. Fall Restraint Systems

Fall restraint systems are erected in such a manner that a fall cannot occur. Fall
restraint systems use PPE to restrict the worker’s range of movement so they cannot
physically travel to the fall hazard.
Fall restraint systems are often underutilized because they are not specifically
mentioned in many regulations, but they are preferred over fall arrest systems. Free
fall distance is not an issue for fall restraint systems, therefore arresting forces,
clearance requirements, secondary injuries, and rescue issues are virtually eliminated.
Best Practice
Fall restraint is always better than fall arrest. Fall restraint systems prevent most
secondary injuries due to the fall and make rescue easy since the worker is still
accessible.

4. Fall Arrest Systems

Fall arrest systems are erected in such a manner that a fall can occur but the fall is
arrested within acceptable force and clearance margins.
Fall arrest systems have a higher risk associated with them, since we have to stop the
falling worker within an acceptable level of force and prevent him/her from
contacting the surrounding structure or the ground.
Training for both fall restraint and fall arrest systems is key.
ANSI Z359.2-2007 includes a significant amount of information about fall protection
training for authorized persons, competent persons, qualified persons, rescuers and
trainers.

5. Administrative Controls

Administrative controls are work practices or procedures that increase a worker’s

awareness of a fall hazard. It must be noted that administrative controls are the least
preferred method of protection because they do not provide a physical or positive
means of protection.
Administrative controls are preventive measures taken to reduce the likelihood of a
fall. These methods include safety monitors, warning lines, warning horns,
designated areas, or control lines. It must also be noted that OSHA regulates the use
of many administrative controls and it is incumbent on the fall protection program
administrator to understand the jurisdictions and regulations that apply.
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Fall Protection Solutions:
With falls from height being the most common cause of fatality and serious injury in
the workplace fall protection is vitally important and Arco Professional Safety
Services can help make this a safer environment.

Falls can occur from the edges of roofs, through gaps or holes in roofs, through
corroded roof sheets and through fragile roof materials such as roof lights. Falls from
height can also happen to people maintaining, cleaning, demolishing and inspecting
buildings, industrial plant and machinery.

Most roofs require safe access for maintenance, inspections and roof works so it is
important to consider the right roof safety system for the type of roof, and work that
is being carried out. Examples of situations where rooftop fall protection is needed
include:

• Roof Access: Access via ladders and roof hatches

• Roof Edges: Access required for gutter cleaning, leakage checks, inspection and
maintenance to the rest of the roof
• Roof Plant: Air conditioning units, satellite dishes and solar panels all need regular
checks
• Walkways: Walkways should be accompanied by a fall protection system
• Rooflights: Fall protection required for cleaning and maintenance

Products designed to prevent

falls:
• Collective Fall Protection
• Guardrail Edge Protection
• Horizontal & Vertical Lifelines
• Ladder Safety Systems
• Anchor Points and Eyebolts
• Abseil Systems
• Davit Arm Systems

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 Training:

Training shall be provided to all workers performing work on an elevated work

surface or who may be exposed to a fall hazard. Training should enable workers to

recognize fall hazards and provide the requirements to be followed to minimize these
hazards. Training must be completed and documented prior to worker working in
areas where fall hazards exist. Workers exposed to fall hazards as part of their job
duties shall be trained in the following areas by a competent person to become an
authorized worker;
• The nature of fall hazards in the work area.
• Procedures for erecting, maintaining, disassembling and inspecting fall protection
systems being utilized.
• Use and operation of guardrail systems, fall restraint systems, PFAS, warning line
systems, safety monitoring systems, and other protection to be used.
• The role of each worker in the safety monitoring program, if being incorporated into
the fall protection program for the work to be performed.
• Limitations on the use of mechanical equipment during roof work on low-sloped
roof tops.
• Procedures for handling and storage of equipment and materials and the erection of
overhead protection.
• The employee’s role in the fall protection program.
• The applicable standards and regulations affecting the work to be performed.
• Limitations of fall protection equipment.
• Personal protective equipment specific to fall protection including use, inspection,
care and storage requirements.

Retraining:

Retraining shall be provided when management has reason to believe that any
authorized worker who has already received training does not have the understanding
and skill required to perform work and effectively utilize fall protection equipment.
Circumstances where retraining is required may include situations where:
• Changes in the workplace render previous training obsolete.
• Changes in the types of fall protection systems or equipment that render previous
training obsolete.
• Inadequacies in a worker’s performance or knowledge of fall protection systems
that may indicate that the worker has not retained the requisite understanding or skill.
• Deficiencies in the fall protection plan or incident investigations determine that
additional retraining is necessary.

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References:

1- Fall protection (2023) Wikipedia. Available at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_protection.

2- Fall protection - overview Occupational Safety and Health

Administration. Available at: https://www.osha.gov/fall-
protection.

3- Cso §1670. personal fall arrest systems, personal fall restraint

systems and positioning devices., California Code of Regulations,
Title 8, Section 1670. Personal Fall Arrest Systems, Personal Fall
Restraint Systems and Positioning Devices. Available at:
https://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/1670.html.

4- Iterum, L. Rope Rescue Fall Factors, Rope Rescue. Available at:

https://roperescuetraining.com/physics_fall_factors.php.

5- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_factor

6- Gravitec Systems Inc. (2021) Hierarchy of fall protection, Gravitec

Systems Inc. Available at:
https://gravitec.com/hierarchy-fall-protection/.

7- Arco Services Fall protection, Arco Services. Available at:

https://www.arcoservices.co.uk/services/fall-protection.

8- Fall protection program. Available at:

https://www.niu.edu/policies/_pdf/niu-fall-protection-
program.pdf.

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