*Department of Textile Engineering, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran.
J Am Podiatr Med Assoc. 2024 Mar-Apr;114(2). doi: 10.7547/22-008.
Socks are mainly used to give the foot more comfort while wearing shoes. Stitch density of the knitted fabric used in socks can significantly affect the sock properties because it is one of the most important fabric structural factors influencing the mechanical properties. Continuous plantar pressures can cause serious damage, particularly under the metatarsal heads, and it is deduced that using socks redistributes and reduces peak plantar pressures. If peak pressure under the metatarsal heads is predicted, then it will be possible to produce socks with the best mechanical properties to reduce the pressure in these critical areas.
Plain knitted socks with three different stitch lengths (high, medium, and low) were produced. Static plantar pressure measurements by the Gaitview system were accomplished on ten women and then compared with the barefoot situation. Also, the peak plantar pressure of three types of socks under the metatarsal heads are theoretically predicted using the Hertz contact theory.
Experimental results indicate that all socks redistribute the plantar pressure from high to low plantar pressure regions compared with barefoot. In particular, socks with high stitch length have the best performance. By increasing the stitch length, we can significantly reduce the peak plantar pressure of the socks. Correspondingly, the Hertz contact theory resulted in a trend of mean peak pressure reductions in the forefoot region similar to the socks with different stitch densities.
The theoretical results show that by using the Hertz contact theory, static plantar pressure in the forefoot region can be well predicted at a mean error of approximately 9% compared with the other experimental findings.
袜子主要用于在穿鞋时使脚部更加舒适。袜子所使用的针织面料的针脚密度会显著影响袜子的性能，因为它是影响机械性能的最重要的面料结构因素之一。连续的足底压力会造成严重的损伤，尤其是在跖骨头部，人们推断使用袜子可以重新分配并降低峰值足底压力。如果可以预测跖骨头部的峰值压力，那么就有可能生产出具有最佳机械性能的袜子，以降低这些关键区域的压力。
用三种不同针脚长度（高、中、低）生产了平纹针织袜子。通过 Gaitview 系统进行静态足底压力测量，对 10 名女性进行了测量，然后将结果与赤脚情况进行了比较。此外，还使用赫兹接触理论理论预测了三种袜子在跖骨头部的峰值足底压力。
实验结果表明，与赤脚相比，所有袜子都将足底压力从高足底压力区域重新分配到低足底压力区域。特别是针脚长度较高的袜子表现最佳。通过增加针脚长度，我们可以显著降低袜子的峰值足底压力。相应地，赫兹接触理论得出的前足区域平均峰值压力降低趋势与不同针脚密度的袜子相似。
理论结果表明，通过使用赫兹接触理论，可以在平均误差约为 9%的情况下，很好地预测前足区域的静态足底压力，与其他实验结果相比。
