Abstract:
The playing surface has a great influence on the outcome of a sport. It has a
significant effect on the ball behaviour and the technical performance of skills of
the sports participants, but it also impacts on their safety. This research is
focused on the interaction of humans with natural turf pitches (NTPs). The
project research integrates human body, and soil, mechanics in a laboratory
environment by means of new technology and methodology to provide new
understanding of this interaction.
In a biomechanical study carried out using a portable pitch system, stresses
and movements for nine male players performing running and turning
movements on sand-based and clay-based NTPs revealed significantly greater
peak vertical rate-of-loadings (dFz
max
) and peak pressure rate-of-loadings
(dP
max
) for the sand compared to the clay-based condition.
A further soil mechanical study to determine how the dynamic inputs from
players affected the behaviour of those surfaces concluded that soil mechanical
parameters such as moisture content and dry bulk density have a significant
effect on the dynamic stiffness of the surface and that sand-based pitches have
a significantly greater intrinsic stiffness than clay-based pitches explaining the
observed biomechanical loading rate results.
The research provides a step forward in the attempt to understand how humans
interact with sports surfaces and how the surfaces respond. It highlights the
importance of the elastic-plastic stress-strain behaviour of soils (or the soil-turf
matrix) in response to stresses applied by humans and the difference in
mechanical behaviour between sand and clay-based pitches. The findings of
this research will inform sports engineers about the advantages of integrating
biomechanical and soil mechanical data and lead them to ensure that surfaces
that are safe to play and do not hinder the quality of the game by providing
reasonable wear resistance, stiffness and traction values.