Proposal of Method for Estimating Clothing Pressure of Tight-Fitting Garment Made from Highly Elastic Materials: Hybrid Method Using Apparel CAD and Finite Element Analysis Software

Abstract

: Clothing pressure is one of the most important factors in clothing design as it is closely related to the wearing comfort of a garment. Although a few examples of estimating clothing pressure via simulation have been reported so far, the calculations are often difficult since clothing simulation is a non-linear analysis. Therefore, this study proposes a convenient method for estimating clothing pressure by combining a generic apparel computer aided design (CAD) program and finite element analysis software. In the first step, the three-dimensional (3D) shape of the clothing is acquired from its pattern using an apparel CAD program. Then, with the 3D shape of the clothing as the initial shape, a finite element analysis is conducted to calculate the contact between the human body and the clothing using the stress and strain arising in the cloth when it is worn as the loading conditions. Finally, the clothing pressure is computed as the pressure at the contact surface between the clothing and the human body. To validate the proposed method, the clothing pressures of two types of underwear-type compression wear were measured while draped on a torso. When compared to the actual measured values, the average error of the proposed method was 0.24 kPa and the correlation was r = 0.83. These results confirm that the proposed method can estimate clothing pressure with a reasonable degree of accuracy.