Quantifying Water Required to Cool Artificial Turf.

Artificial turf containing black colored infill material has gained widespread use on athletic fields starting in the early 2000s.One of the main arguments made in the desert southwestern part of the United States for replacing natural playing fields with these types of artificial surfaces is that water is not needed for irrigation. However, it has been shown that in arid and semiarid zones the surface temperature of these synthetic fields can range from 60 to 82.2 ^oC (140 to 180°F) during the summer, requiring irrigation and drainage systems to keep them cool enough for use. What is still unknown is the amount of water needed to maintain surface temperatures of these infill fields at levels similar to natural turf grass areas. An experiment was conducted at New Mexico State University (USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 8) to investigate the effect of varying amounts of irrigation water on surface temperatures of artificial turf. A mathematical model was developed based on the heat balance equation to evaluate the heat dissipation from infill fields and to compare the predicted values to experimental data. First results indicated that the amount of water required for cooling artificial grass is an exponential function of the temperature decrease.