I normally wear shorts in the summer, at which point I become very aware of the problem every man knows about - splashback of pee from urinals. No matter how you stand or aim, the inherent splashing effect of a stream of liquid hitting a surface will tend to distribute some of it around the environment. Also the curved shape of urinals, like a concave mirror, will always bounce those splashes back towards you regardless of where on the urinal you direct your flow. (Yes, ladies, it's not just about the aim!) If your legs are covered then those small splashes may not be noticeable, and they'll dry very quickly, but if you're wearing shorts then you can definitely feel those droplets hitting your legs.
Over the last decade or so, deodorising urinal blocks which dissolve are tending to be replaced by scented plastic urinal mats. With plastic mats though, more interesting designs are possible - some manufacturers have designed urinal mats with textured surfaces which attempt to prevent splashback. As a user of urinals, this seems like an obvious win for both the person peeing and the person who has to keep the place clean.
As an engineer, I would have thought that the design of structures which limit the effect of liquids splashing off a surface should be a well-researched subject. It has clear applications in civil engineering for roofs and other surfaces which catch rainfall, for instance, or dam spillways. And yet every urinal mat manufacturer seems to have different designs, with varying degrees of success.
Who researches the effect of splashing liquids? Is there a "best" design for this? And why is it that the multi-billion-dollar hygiene products industry appears unaware of whatever this "best" design is?
