Modeling Turf Through Discrete Element Analysis

摘要

Composite materials play a considerable role in sports. Artificial turf is acomposite which attempts to advantageously replicate a natural grass/soil playingsurface. Despite numerous advantages, the technology is correlated with an increase ininjuries. The concept behind this research is to create and validate a discrete elementmodel (DEM) for the ground/foot interaction through the use of open source software.Related models could investigate footwear and interactions with other granularmaterials, e.g. sand on a beach or climbing on gravelly hills.After validation, the goal is to analyze an arrangement of studs to determine whatrole stud geometry plays on torque [N-mm]. The validated data was provided throughlaboratory experiments. Three football studs attached to a rigid bracket were turned at1 degree per second in rubber infill and artificial grass+infill on a servo hydraulic loadframe for 60 seconds. Torque was sampled at 100Hz.A trial and error approach was employed to calibrate the elastic modulus, Poisson'sratio, and density until it had a similar output to the validation data provided by theload frame. Through this approach, the DEM model was able to yield results within a2% difference for average torque relative to the validation data. DEM simulationsdemonstrated stud geometry appears to play a significant role in torque and forcegeneration.