HIGH-LOADING ABSORPTION CHARACTERISTICS OF NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL TURFS

Abstract

The present study was designed to illustrate shock attenuation characteristics of natural turf as a target property for long pile artificial turf (3-g turf) and to compare the property with that of existing 3-g turf systems. A recently proposed new high loading test was conducted to detect the initial state of shock attenuation property of natural turfs with two different bases (sod and sand base) and of 3-g turfs with three different infills (sand, rubber and sand/rubber). Clear differences between these turfs were observed as the natural turfs are having a higher impact damping and a larger hysteresis with plastic surface deformation. Those features would be beneficial in lowering a high load imparted to the human body but might limit player’s performance.