SATRA Technology wished to use an 'artificial foot' to replace those of live volunteers in comfort tests. The artificial foot had the size and shape of a real foot and was made of a heated aluminium core surrounded by a polyurethane and a porous-rubber layer. The tests involved equipping the artificial foot with hose (socks, stockings, etc.) and the shoes or boots to be tested, and subjecting it to controlled environments for periods of up to several hours. The Study Group was asked to look initially at heat and moisture transfer for feet, real and artificial, exposed directly to the atmosphere. The next stage is to look at mass and heat transport across the hose. Identification of key effects in a reasonable model might allow temperature and moisture levels in different conditions to be determined without the need for separate experiments in each case.

Problem presented by
Tom Bayes, SATRA Technology

Study Group contributors
Caroline Bird (Unilever Research)
Chris Breward (University of Oxford)
Jeff Dewynne (University of Oxford)
Andrew Hill (University of Bath)
Sam Howison (University of Oxford)
Andrew Lacey (Heriot-Watt University)
Colin Please (University of Southampton)
John Ockendon (University of Oxford)