Tensile Deformation Analysis of Sportswear Using Cloth Simulation

In order to design functional and comfortable sportswear, it is important to understand wearing conditions of a wearer such as tensile stress and clothing pressure on the garment during sports motions. However, those kinds of information are difficult to obtain from experiments with humans. In this study, we described a methodology which can recreate a human body and garments in virtual reality, and evaluated the methodology in a static condition by comparing the results of simulation with experimental data, to successfully get it validated. We also applied the methodology in dynamic situations, named “Dynamic cloth simulation”, with the use of a movable digital human model that can reproduce not only the shape of the body but also skin strain distributions of the body during sports motions. An experiment was conducted to investigate the validity of Dynamic cloth simulation. A similar tendency was shown between a wearer and the digital human model in the elongation of fabric on the garment.