SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
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Facility&Operations Table 2. Surface temperatures of various fibers after 1 hour under heat lamp Fiber Color Silver Black Green (FieldTurf Duraspine Pro) Gold Green (FieldTurf Revolution) Green (Astroflect) White Surface Temperature (F) 149.4 a† 144.3 b 140.5 bc 139.8 bc 138.6 c 137.9 c 128.7 d All fibers were FieldTurf Duraspine Pro unless otherwise noted †Temperatures that do not share the same letter are significantly (statistically) different that the darkest colors produced the hottest surfaces (Table 2). White fibers were the coolest, resulting in a surface temperature ap- proximately 10 degrees cooler than green fibers. When comparing the three green fibers, both FieldTurf fibers (Duraspine Pro and Revolution) and AstroTurf ’s AstroFlect did not statistically differ from one another. In the infill material comparison, the color of crumb rubber proved to have little or no effect on surface temperature (Table 3). Green rubber was marginally cooler (less than 10 degrees) than both black and tan rubber, but was still nearly 150° F. Both Ecofill Table 3. Surface temperatures of various infill after 1 hour under heat lamp Infill Black Rubber Tan Rubber Green Rubber Ecofill TPE Surface Temperature (F) 156.0 a† 153.4 a 147.9 b 141.6 c 136.4 d †Temperatures that do not share the same letter are signifi- cantly (statistically) different (141.6° F) and TPE (136.4°) were cooler than all crumb rubber col- ors (black: 156.0° F, tan: 153.4° F, green: 147.9° F). While it is valuable to examine the influence of synthetic turf components on surface temperature individually, what really mat- ters is the effects of these components after they are combined in turf systems. In our study, any effect of fiber color was essentially negated with the addition of black crumb rubber infill (Table 1). It did not matter whether the fibers were white or black—surface temperature was essentially the same for any fiber color tested. As- troTurf ’s AstroFlect was not statistically different from FieldTurf Duraspine Pro fibers (green) that contained either TPE, green rubber, or tan rubber, even though it trended about four degrees cooler. Reductions of five or even ten degrees offer little comfort when temperatures can still exceed 150° F. NO MAGIC BULLET What do these results tell us? As of right now, it is obvious that there is no “magic bullet” available to dramatically lower the surface temperature of synthetic turf. Reductions of five or even ten de- grees offer little comfort when temperatures can still exceed 150° F. Until temperatures can be reduced by at least 20-30 degrees for an extended period of time, surface temperature will remain a major issue on synthetic turf fields. We will continue to investigate methods to cool these systems. You can follow our work on our website (http://ssrc.psu.edu), “Liking” us on Facebook (Penn State’s Center for Sports Surface Research), following us on twitter (@PSUsportsturf ) and on www.stma.org. We have also introduced a free video series on our website called the “Sportsturf Scoop.” Topics related to both natu- ral grass and synthetic turf (including a video on surface tempera- ture of synthetic turf ) are available and new topics are added regularly. ■ Tom Serensits is manager of Penn State’s Sports Surface Research Center. 22 SportsTurf | June 2011 www.sportsturfonline.com