Development of a New Technique to Evaluate Abrasivieness Artificial Turf (P168)

Abstract

Several studies can be found that compare the risk of injury on artificial turf and natural grass, mainly regarding the risk of injury in ankle and knee. A main problem of artificial turf is, however, related to the injuries due to sliding and it has not been studied in depth. These skin injuries (called turf-burns) are caused by a combination of two effects: abrasion, which damages the upper layer of human skin (possibly related to coefficient of static friction) and a rise of temperature that leads to skin burning (possibly related to dynamic coefficient of friction). The test device currently used to measure abrasiveness on artificial turf does not reproduce the real sliding of a sportsman; it allows the comparison between different artificial turf surfaces but it is very difficult to know the effect of this surface in players’ skin. On the other hand, only dynamic coefficient of friction is obtained. For this reason, the Institute of Biomechanics of Valencia (IBV) has developed a test device simulating the same vertical force and velocity than the sliding trackle. A tool cover with a film of silicone slides over the artificial turf and the static and dynamic coefficient of friction are obtained. The aim of this study is to obtain a good correlation between mechanical properties of artificial turf and human perception; then, it will be possible to know (from mechanical properties) the effect of different artificial turfs in human skin when players slide over them. To obtain this objective, six prototypes of artificial turf were tested using IBV test device and the damage of the silicones were evaluated by means of analysis of roughness and image analysis (Scanning Electron Microscopy); the results were related to the coefficient of friction and the subjects’ opinion (by means of a subjective study consisting of a survey about abrasiveness). A good correlation between damage on silicone after test and subjective study results were obtained. However, the correlation between coefficient of friction and subjective study was not good since artificial turf surfaces with similar coefficient of friction were considered different by subjects.