Viscoelastic Characterization of Sports Surfaces and its Relation with Force Reduction

The present paper describes the activity carried out to investigate the dependence of the force reduction measure of sport surfaces on the material’s viscoelastic dynamic properties and on the geometry of the sample. The study was carried out by means of lab tests with an artificial athlete apparatus and by dynamic-mechanical analysis. Seven different sport surfaces were tested with the artificial athlete and their viscoelastic properties analyzed. Other polymeric materials were studied besides the sport surfaces, in order to explore a wider range of properties. The results show a marked effect of sample thickness on the force reduction measure, and a method to correlate them with intrinsic properties of the material is proposed.