The effects of non-Newtonian fluid material midsole footwear on tibial shock acceleration and attenuation

Enze Shao; Qichang Mei; Julien S Baker; István Bíró; Wei Liu; Yaodong Gu

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2023.1276864

The effects of non-Newtonian fluid material midsole footwear on tibial shock acceleration and attenuation

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023 Dec 13:11:1276864. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1276864. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Enze Shao¹, Qichang Mei^{1

2}, Julien S Baker³, István Bíró⁴, Wei Liu¹, Yaodong Gu^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Sport Science, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China.
² Auckland Bioengineering Institute, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
³ Centre for Population Health and Medical Informatics, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁴ Faculty of Engineering, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary.
⁵ Department of Radiology, Ningbo No. 2 Hospital, Ningbo, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Given the possibility of higher ground temperatures in the future, the pursuit of a cushioning material that can effectively reduce sports injuries during exercise, particularly one that retains its properties at elevated temperatures, has emerged as a serious concern. Methods: A total of 18 man recreational runners were recruited from Ningbo University and local clubs for participation in this study. Frequency analysis was employed to investigate whether there is a distinction between non-Newtonian (NN) shoes and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) shoes. Results: The outcomes indicated that the utilization of NN shoes furnished participants with superior cushioning when engaging in a 90° cutting maneuver subsequent to an outdoor exercise, as opposed to the EVA material. Specifically, participants wearing NN shoes exhibited significantly lower peak resultant acceleration (p = 0.022) and power spectral density (p = 0.010) values at the distal tibia compared to those wearing EVA shoes. Moreover, shock attenuation was significantly greater in subjects wearing NN shoes (p = 0.023) in comparison to EVA shoes. Performing 90° cutting maneuver in NN shoes resulted in significantly lower peak ground reaction force (p = 0.010), vertical average loading rate (p < 0.010), and vertical instantaneous loading rate (p = 0.030) values compared to performing the same maneuvers in EVA shoes. Conclusion: The study found that the PRA and PSD of the distal tibia in NN footwear were significantly lower compared to EVA footwear. Additionally, participants exhibited more positive SA while using NN footwear compared to EVA. Furthermore, during the 90° CM, participants wearing NN shoes showed lower PGRF, VAIL, and VILR compared to those in EVA shoes. All these promising results support the capability of NN footwear to offer additional reductions in potential injury risk to runners, especially in high-temperature conditions.

Keywords: biomechanics; ethylene vinyl acetate; non-Newtonian flow; shock acceleration; tibial.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was sponsored by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China for Distinguished Young Scholars (LR22A020002), Zhejiang Provincial Key Research and Development Program of China (2021C03130), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation (LTGY23H040003), Ningbo key R&D Program (2022Z196), the Project of NINGBO Leading Medical & Health Discipline (Nos 2022-F15 and Nos 2022-F22), Ningbo Natural Science Foundation (20221JCGY010532 and 20221JCGY010607), Public Welfare Science & Technology Project of Ningbo, China (2021S134), and Zhejiang Rehabilitation Medical Association Scientific Research Special Fund (ZKKY2023001).