Footwear microclimate

NewsBot · Oct 17, 2021

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Footwear microclimate and its effects on the microbial community of the plantar skin
Te Miao, Peihua Wang, Nan Zhang & Yuguo Li
Scientific Reports volume 11, Article number: 20356 (2021)

The association between the footwear microclimate and microbial community on the foot plantar skin was investigated by experiments with three participants. Novel methods were developed for measuring in-shoe temperature and humidity at five footwear regions, as well as the overall ventilation rate inside the footwear. Three types of footwear were tested including casual shoes, running shoes, and perforated shoes for pairwise comparison of footwear microclimate and corresponding microbial community on the skin. The major findings are as follows: (1) footwear types make a significant difference to in-shoe temperature at the instep region with the casual shoes sustaining the warmest of all types; (2) significant differences were observed in local internal absolute humidity between footwear types, with the casual shoes sustaining the highest level of humidity at most regions; (3) the perforated shoes provided the highest ventilation rate, followed by running and casual shoes, and the faster the gait, the larger the discrepancy in ventilation rate between footwear types; (4) the casual shoes seemed to provide the most favorable internal environment for bacterial growth at the distal plantar skin; and (5) the bacterial growth at the distal plantar skin showed a positive linear correlation with the in-shoe temperature and absolute humidity, and a negative linear correlation with the ventilation rate. The ventilation rate seemed to be a more reliable indicator of the bacterial growth. Above all, we can conclude that footwear microclimate varies in footwear types, which makes contributions to the bacterial growth on the foot plantar skin.
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NewsBot · Oct 17, 2021

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NewsBot · Mar 14, 2022

Modeling the thermal microenvironment of footwear subjected to forced ventilation
Te Miao, Yuguo Li
Ergonomics. 2022 Mar 12;1-29

In this paper, we develop a mathematical model of the thermal microenvironment in footwear that considers forced ventilation of the footwear cavity. The developed model was validated using a newly developed thermal foot-manikin system and the results show that the model effectively predicts the total dry thermal insulation of footwear under various dynamic conditions. The footwear cavity model is then integrated with a thermoregulation model, and the integrated model effectively predicts changes in foot skin temperature resulting from forced ventilation (0-90 L/min). At an air temperature of 26.4 °C and a foot thermal comfort temperature of 32.2 °C, the required minimum ventilation rate was found to be 5.4 to 24.6 L/min, which corresponds to a total static thermal insulation of footwear of 0.10 to 0.20
m
2
⋅
K
⋅
W
−
1
. This indicates that ventilation can adequately control the thermal microenvironment of the footwear cavity, thereby maintaining foot thermal comfort.
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NewsBot · Sep 13, 2022

Influence of Upper Footwear Material Properties on Foot Skin Temperature, Humidity and Perceived Comfort of Older Individuals
Pui-Ling Li et al
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Aug 31;19(17):10861

Studying the in-shoe microclimate of older individuals is important for enhancing their foot comfort and preventing foot diseases. However, there is a lack of scientific work that explores the thermo-physiological wear comfort of older individuals with different footwear. This study aims to examine the effects of upper footwear materials on changes and distributions in the foot skin temperature and relative humidity for older individuals. Forty older individuals are recruited to perform sitting and walking activities under four experimental conditions in a conditioning chamber. The findings indicate that footwear upper constructed of highly permeable mesh fabric with large air holes shows fewer changes in foot skin temperature (ranging from 1.3 to 3.3 °C) and relative humidity (ranging from -13.3 to 5.7%) throughout the entire foot during dynamic walking, as well as higher subjective ratings on perceived thermal comfort when compared to footwear made of synthetic leather and composite layers. The findings serve to enhance current understanding of designing footwear with optimum comfort for older adults.
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