A soft mannequin for the evaluation of pressure garments on human body

In an effort to simulate the human body for measuring contact pressure, a soft mannequin has been developed with the dimensions of the lower torso of a real female body. The mannequin contains a full-size bone skeleton, imitating soft tissue and skin. The imitated soft tissue is made from flexible polyurethane foam of different moduli, similar to the soft tissue in various body parts. Silicon rubber is used to simulate the human skin. Nine girdle specimens with changing combinations of three types of main fabrics, reinforcement and narrow elastics were tested on the same human subject and on the soft mannequin made of the same shape as the human subject's lower torso. Tests show that the pressure value obtained from the subject can be correlated to those obtained from the mannequin. The relationships are presented in eight linear equations. This soft mannequin provides a novel tool for evaluating the performance of pressure garments, without using expensive live models.