Parameters affecting sports socks pressure and pressure prediction from tensile characteristics

The interaction between lower leg and the lower leg part of socks is an important factor affecting sports performance and wearing comfort. Garment fit, garment slip and fabric stretch are three essential components effecting comfort of the wearer's dynamic movement: 'Garment slip' is mostly determined by the coefficient of friction between skin and fabric and between different layers of garments. 'Fabric stretch', an important factor in pressure comfort, depends largely on elastic characteristics of fabrics. Sports socks were designed to give necessary pressure on leg muscles and enable comfort for not to decrease the performance of the sports people. If a fabric has high friction and stretching resistance, high clothing pressure is likely to be exerted on the body, which could result in discomfort feeling. This study aims to investigate the effects of structural mechanics of knitted fabrics on the amount of pressure generated on the underlying body. Five sports socks made of polyamide, polyester and cotton including different amounts of elastane fibers and having different knits on different parts of leg regions according to the necessities of sports were selected from the market. We carried out friction and tensile tests on different parts of sports socks. We also measured the pressure generated by socks' fabrics by pressure sensors and then discuss a method of validating the reliability of Laplace law for calculating pressure applied to a cylindrical body of known radius and compare the predicted and objectively measured pressure values. Results show that the fabrics having high tensions exerted high pressure values on body and the factor of tension given in Laplace law is very important in pressure evaluation. But the fabric weight and friction coefficient are also important for the pressure applied on body. We can see these influences when comparing the predictive and objective pressure results. The Laplace Law was not clear and acceptable for all the results.