Elevated heat over artificial turf fields is a serious health problem and perhaps the least understood synthetic turf phenomenon.
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Hello again - Dr. Truly Green.
Elevated heat on and over artificial turf athletic fields is gaining increased recognition as a serious health problem but it remains one of the least understood synthetic turf phenomenon. Only an honest recognition of the problem, with a good understanding of the physics and material science involved, allows the development of effective solutions. FieldShield does offer these effective solutions.
Artificial turf produces a higher temperature ambient above the playing surface due to absorption of solar energy (electromagnetic radiation). The reflectivity or albedo of an artificial turf system, including the infill, is generally lower than natural grass (darker colors absorb more electromagnetic radiation) due to the exposure of dark infill. Also, artificial turf and rubber infill do not naturally contain and hold moisture, to provide evaporative cooling, as natural grass and soils do.
Given a specific material (in this case, PE fiber or recycled tire rubber), the darker the color of the material, the more electromagnetic radiation will be absorbed and subsequently re-radiated to the ambient above the playing surface. Obviously, the darker the area of the playing surface; the more elevated are the temperatures to which the athletes are exposed during play.
Also, because artificial turfs tend to ‘lay-over’ and expose more surface area directly to the sun’s radiation, insolation (solar radiation energy received) can increase, dramatically.
In hot, dry (less clouds/low humidity) climates, and especially in southern latitudes, the preponderance of exposed black (rubber) material is likely to create an unhealthy, excessively hot, playing condition (the 2002 “synthetic surface heat study” of C. Frank Williams and Gilbert Pulley, at Brigham Young University, recorded surface temperatures of 200 F, on a 98 degree day, on the previous iteration of a leading competitor’s surface, with ambient temps above 150 F). Not only is the air temperature above the surface excessive, but the surface temperature of the black rubber is actually dangerous to touch.
The above referenced manufacturer’s new monofilament surface exposes considerably more black rubber to the sun than their fibrillated surface studied in 2002, which would seem to render the new monofilament surface a considerable health and safety risk in the noted climates.
