Water Requirements for Cooling Artificial Turf
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 10
Abstract
Artificial turf with black infill material gained widespread use on athletic fields starting in the early 2000s. One argument made in the desert southwestern United States for replacing natural grass–based athletic fields with artificial turf surfaces is that water is not needed for irrigation. However, it has been shown that in arid and semiarid climate zones the surface temperature of the artificial turf fields can exceed 80°C during the summer, requiring irrigation and drainage systems to keep them cool enough for use. An experiment was conducted at New Mexico State University to evaluate the amount of water required to maintain surface temperatures comparable to those of natural turfgrass areas. A mathematical model was developed based on the heat balance equation to determine heat dissipation from artificial turf–based fields with comparison of the predicted values to experimental data. Overall, our model estimates were within 12% of the measured values. The model indicates that over a period, the amount of water (3.00 to 5.00 mm) required to maintain artificial turf at temperatures similar to irrigated natural turfgrass are comparable.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
All data, code, and materials are available by request.
Acknowledgments
Financial support of the study was provided by the Lawn Institute and New Mexico State University’s Agricultural Experiment Station. The general support and technical assistance from the New Mexico State University Facilities and Services and New Mexico State Athletics Department are also greatly appreciated. The authors are further grateful for the help of Ralph Jones, grounds manager at Facilities and Services, and Vladislav Sevostianov, fellow at the John A. Paulson School on Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University.
References
Aoki, T. 2009. “Effect of solar illuminance and albedo on surface temperature of outdoor sport surfaces.” Nat. Environ. 11: 40–48.
Buskirk, E. R., E. R. McLaughlin, and J. L. Loomis. 1971. “Microclimate over artificial turf.” J. Health Phys. Educ. Recreation 42 (9): 29–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221473.1971.10617177.
Cheng, H., Y. Hu, and M. Reinhard. 2014. “Environmental and health impacts of artificial turf: A review.” Environ. Sci. Technol. 48 (4): 2114–2129.
Devitt, D. A., M. H. Young, M. Baghzouz, and B. M. Bird. 2007. “Surface temperature, heat loading and spectral reflectance of artificial turfgrass.” J. Turfgrass Sports Surf. Sci. 83 (Nov): 68–82.
Gustin, M., P. R. Fleming, D. Allinson, and S. Watson. 2018. “Modelling surface temperatures on 3G.” Proceedings 2 (6): 279. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2060279.
Jim, C. Y. 2015. “Assessing climate-adaptation effect of extensive tropical green roofs in cities.” Landscape Urban Plann. 138 (Jun): 54–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2015.02.014.
Jim, C. Y. 2017. “Intense summer heat fluxes in artificial turf harm people and environment.” Landscape Urban Plann. 157 (Jan): 561–576. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.09.012.
Kandelin, W. W., G. S. Krahenbuhl, and C. A. Schacht. 1976. “Athletic field microclimates and heat stress.” J. Saf. Res. 8 (3): 106–111.
Lavorgna, J., J. Song, W. Beattie, M. Riley, C. Beil, K. Levchenko, and S. A. Shofar. 2011. Review of benefits and issues associated with naturalgrass and artificial turf rectangular stadium fields. Rockville, MD: Montgomery County Council.
Leinauer, B. D., and D. Smeal. 2012. “Turfgrass irrigation.” Accessed March 1, 2018. https://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_circulars/CR660.pdf.
McNitt, A. S., D. M. Petrunak, and T. J. Serensits. 2008. “Temperature amelioration of synthetic turf surfaces through irrigation.” Acta Hortic. 783 (Jun): 573–582. https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2008.783.59.
Morehouse, C. A. 1992. “Artificial turf.” Turfgrass 32 (Jan): 89–127. https://doi.org/10.2134/agronmonogr32.c3.
Petrass, L. A., D. M. Twomey, and J. T. Harvey. 2014a. “Understanding how the components of a synthetic turf system contribute to increased surface temperature.” Procedia Eng. 72 (Jan): 943–948. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.06.159.
Petrass, L. A., D. M. Twomey, J. T. Harvey, L. Otago, and P. LeRossignol. 2014b. “Comparison of surface temperatures of different synthetic turf systems and natural grass: Have advances in synthetic turf technology made a difference.” J. Sports Eng. Technol. 229 (1): 10–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754337114553692.
Ramsey, J. D. 1982. “Research quarterly for exercise and sport.” Res. Q. Exercise Sport 53 (1): 82–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/02701367.1982.10605230.
Thoms, A. W., J. T. Brosnan, J. M. Zidek, and J. C. Sorochan. 2014. “Models for predicting surface temperatures on synthetic turf playing surfaces.” Procedia Eng. 72 (Jan): 895–900. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.06.153.
Villacañas, V., J. Sánchez-Sánchez, J. García-Unanue, J. López, and L. Gallardo. 2016. “The influence of various types of artificial turfs on football fields and their effects on the thermal profile of surfaces.” J. Sports Eng. Technol. 231 (1): 21–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754337115624819.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 10 • October 2020
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 10, 2020
Accepted: Jun 12, 2020
Published online: Aug 13, 2020
Published in print: Oct 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Jan 13, 2021
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.