Simulation of Toe Thermal Responses to Cold Exposure while Wearing Protective Footwear

A mathematical model utilizing the measured thermal resistance of footwear to predict toe temperature was developed. A lumped system represents the toe region as a single “toe” and a heat balance equation was established. The simulation was validated with measured physiological data obtained from human testing wearing the same footwear. The model prediction agreed with measured values within one standard deviation. The proposed approach, which consists of a heated thermal foot test and then modeling, is a cost effective alternative to human testing. The model has application for military planning, cold injury risk prediction and the selection of adequate protective footwear.