US 7,530,181 B2
Protective footwear
Vernon Peregrin Joynt, Waterkloof (South Africa); and Jacobus Theodorus Van Dyk, Brunia Oord (South Africa)
Assigned to CSIR, Pretoria (South Africa)
Appl. No. 10/516,403
PCT Filed May 27, 2003, PCT No. PCT/IB03/02032
§ 371(c)(1), (2), (4) Date Jul. 29, 2005,
PCT Pub. No. WO03/101234, PCT Pub. Date Dec. 11, 2003.
Claims priority of application No. 02/4368 (ZA), filed on May 31, 2002; application No. 02/4480 (ZA), filed on Jun. 05, 2002; and application No. 03/0684 (ZA), filed on Jan. 24, 2003.
Prior Publication US 2006/0000117 A1, Jan. 05, 2006
Int. Cl. A43B 23/00 (2006.01); A43B 13/12 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 36—25R  [36/107; 36/30 R; 36/72 R] 27 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of protecting a foot of a human from effects of a landmine explosion underneath said foot, including
guiding shock waves caused by the landmine explosion obliquely away from said foot by means of a correspondingly obliquely oriented shock wave guide member embedded in a sole volume of an article of footwear worn by the human, the shock wave guide member being of a material having an acoustic speed of at least more than 3000 m/sec;
deflecting any stray component of the shock waves back into the guide member and attenuating propagation of any said stray component of the shock waves in a direction toward said foot in the sole volume of the article of footwear by means of a layer of material having a low acoustic speed arranged between the shock wave guide member and an inner sole of the article of footwear;
cracking the material of the shock wave guide member by means of said shock waves at a speed of crack progression lower than the acoustic speed of said material of the shock wave guide member, and spalling said material at a downstream end of the shock wave guide member to create a path of lesser resistance for a blast following the shock waves; and
causing said blast following the shock waves to follow said path of lesser resistance and removing said cracked material to render said path open, in which the acoustic speed of said layer of material having a low acoustic speed is lower than 200 m/sec.