Study Group report
This is the final report on the problem of modelling perspiration of human feet, brought to ESGI46 by SATRA Technology.

Report authors
Chris Breward (University of Oxford)
Andrew Lacey (Heriot-Watt University)

Introduction
The following report details two main themes:

1. Modelling of a bare foot. First, two bare-foot models, for real and artificial feet, are discussed in report. From a purely thermal point of view it transpires that the thermal properties of an artificial foot must be in reasonable agreement with those of a real foot if the experimental results for the two are to be similar under a variety of conditions. Inclusion of moisture leads to the further conclusion that to maintain the matching thermal properties, the porous rubber layer on the surface of the artificial foot should remain saturated.

2. Modelling of wicking and temperature within hose. Second, a model for a sock, or other hose, is looked at in report. This work must be regarded as preliminary as the sizes of a number of quantities and the boundary conditions (modelling heat and moisture transfer to the foot’s environment) require further attention. Forced convection within the hose, resulting from foot movement, also has to be represented. It does appear that wicking tends to lead to a uniform level of saturation (dampness) across the hose. Some progress has been made in seeing how this saturation will evolve but the hose model needs to be coupled to another for outer footwear.

Download 'Feet.pdf' (117 Kb).