A novel method for determining skin deformation of lower limb in cycling

Abstract

Skin deformation is the foundation of defining appropriate ease distribution at different parts of the body for compression clothing. The purpose of this study is to introduce a novel method to determine skin deformation of lower limb in cycling. Ten male volunteers (height 175 ± 2.4 cm and BMI 22.7 ± 1.7 kg/m2) were selected as the subjects in this study. The skin areas from waist to knee of this subject’s lower limb in 12 cycling postures were obtained with a gel rubbing method. Then image pixels were transplanted to calculate the deformation of these skin areas in different postures and the skin deformation in cycling was plotted with the interpolation function in MATLAB. The results showed that skin deformations on the areas of abdomen, groin, haunch bone, gluteal fold, knee, and peoples changed obviously in cycling. The skin deformation on the area of abdomen and peoples was about −30% and −50% separately. Whereas, the skin had an about 40% stretch deformation on the areas of haunch bone, gluteal fold and knee and at the position of inner thigh, buttock bumps, and the middle of front and posterior thigh, the skin deformation was about 15%.The study presents a reliable and convenient method to procure skin deformation for active body postures. The results can provide primary data for pattern designer to determine suitable ease distribution, reasonable divisions of clothing pattern and matching elastic fabric for each division of cycling shorts.