Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Development Of A Discrete Element Model For Artificial Turf, Justin Rittenhouse

Dissertations

NFL data exhibits a distinct correlation between an elevated lower extremity injury rate and synthetic surfaces. These ubiquitous injuries frequently relate to excessive foot traction (i.e., failure to release causing fracture or soft tissue damage). Consequently, a discrete element model was developed using open-source software to analyze stud traction. First, laboratory data was collected via bench level experiments covering seventeen different testing scenarios. A minimum of twenty-five samples were collected per scenario. Total work, average torque, and maximum torque were used as indicators of stud grip. And the latter two were statistically analyzed for outliers and significant differences. Next, an …