Effect of the structural components of the third generation of artificial football turf on shock absorption

This study aims to investigate the effect of different components of artificial football turf (infill height and free pile height) and wear on shock absorption of artificial turf. Eight samples from two different manufacturers with different rubber infill height were tested. The experimental results showed that the rubber height has a significant effect on shock absorption. Wear affects shock absorption, the effect of wear on shock absorption namely the number of cycles required to reduce shock absorption, varies for different samples. Although free pile height does not affect shock absorption, it has an important role to keep rubber inside the artificial turf, so it shows its role in the reduction of wear effect. These results demonstrate the importance of properly designing artificial turf components to obtain the proper shock absorption