Modeling of shoes interaction with sports grounds/fields

Abstract

Nowadays, football sport is one of the most well known forms of mass amusement. Natural grass is the most commonly used surface for many sports. Unfortunately, climate changes affect the development of grass which will cause not only a deficiency in the players performance but also a higher risk of injuries. Therefore, weather-resistant fields are needed. Artificial turfs are being developed as an alternative to natural grass. Today, the third generation 3G artificial turf is considered the best alternative to natural grass. Many publications tested these turf against an impact test using Finite element analysis FEA. This work will focus on modeling the interaction between the ground (elastomer material) and the shoe during sports use. Two stud configurations made out of polyethylene foam PE LD45 were selected. Two ground shockpads were selected and were modeled as hyperelastic foam material using FEA. A total of four nonlinear simulations were conducted using each stud configuration on each ground shockpad. Due to the limitations, only two simulation were performed shoe1/shockpad1 and shoe2/shockpad. The vertical displacement, shear stress and the tangential force were calculated. The results show that the second shoe configuration cause a vertical displacement of less than 0.1 mm on the shockpad which is less than the first shoe. Both shoes result in a shear stress of 0.3 Mpa and the second shoe recorded a tangential force of 30N. the results shows that the second shoe is more suitable when testing versus the shockpad. More simulation need to be performed to further investigate the interaction between the shoe and the artificial turf.