Thermophysical interaction in the shoe-foot system during sport activity

摘要

The purpose of the present paper is to give a quantified estimation on the distribution of the temperature and humidity inside of the elastic knitted sport shoe at different conditions and shoe materials. For that, a coupled mathematical model of the heat and moisture transport in the system foot- shoe- environment is developed and implemented in an in- house code. Simulations performed at different temperatures of ambient air, polyamide and polyester shoe materials and sport activity show that these factors strongly influence the skin temperature and humidity resulting in an essential change of the foot thermal comfort. Under the assumption of a uniform sweating distribution on the human foot, the lowest thermal comfort on the foot surface is detected under the heel. A special attention is paid to the foot volume change caused by the sport activity which leads to a reduction of the internal thin air layer. Simulations revealed that its influence on the shoe comfort in terms of the skin temperature and humidity is small. The results can be used for the estimation of the comfort in shoes at different conditions and development of new shoe designs to make shoes more comfortable.