Authors:
Matteo Moncalero
1
;
Martino Colonna
2
;
Alessandro Pezzoli
3
and
Marco Nicotra
2
Affiliations:
1
Università di Bologna, Motor Science Research Centre, School of Motor and Sport Sciences and University of Turin, Italy
;
2
Università di Bologna, Italy
;
3
Politecnico di Torino, Motor Science Research Centre, School of Motor and Sport Sciences and University of Turin, Italy
Keyword(s):
Ski Boots, Thermal Comfort, Temperature Sensing, Humidity Sensing, Sport Equipment, Equipment Design.
Abstract:
Winter sports are often performed in severe environmental conditions and this could represent a limit in terms of comfort and therefore performance. Since alpine skiing has the biggest number of practitioners among the winter sports and because the feeling of cold in the feet is one of the most common problem, a testing method has been developed to perform outdoor tests on ski boots in order to evaluate the thermal comfort for different liner materials. The tests, performed on both male and female skiers wearing the same shell with different liners simultaneously (one on the left foot and one on the right foot), showed that a significant difference in terms of comfort using different liners in the same environmental conditions is present. Specific tests have been made to ensure that such differences between the two feet were not due to physiological difference between left to right feet; for this reason, data has been recorded using the same shell and liner for both feet, obtaining n
egligible differences between the two. Moreover, the collected data can be used to optimize the target of use of the ski boot and liner, choosing the best materials to achieve specific behaviour in terms of heating, breathability and moisture management.
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