Friday, February 10, 2012

PhD Research Studentship in Artificial Turf at Loughborough University, UK 2012

Artificial turf pitches are commonly used for a variety of sports, such as football, hockey and rugby.
Their mechanical properties are designed to suit the requirements of the specific sport and achieved through appropriate selection of carpet design, infill and shockpad materials. For example, in rugby impact protection and traction are key features to be considered, while in hockey a smooth surface that provides consistent ball roll is critical. This project aims to develop a suite of valid and reliable tests that can be performed on artificial turf pitches to evaluate their performance from a player perspective. These are likely to include player perception and movement tests, the latter ranging from basic movements through to sport specific and in-game scenarios. A key aspect is the sensitivity of the tests, which must to sufficient to distinguish between pitch surfaces of different properties. Such tests would represent a powerful tool in the ongoing development of new artificial turf products and in benchmarking performance against natural turf.