Development of a synthetic sports surface for an athletic track

Abstract

A synthetic sports surface is a rnulti-layer structure which has become very popular as a substitute tor natural grass. This research project was meant to study the feasibility of developing a natural rubber base top covering for an athletic track for Sri Lanka's tropical environment. Here, the scrap rubber crumbs were used as the aggregate which is bound by natural rubber latex and cement. The latter was used to help in drying the surface quickly and also to impart greater hardness. Two types of rubber crumbs, namely tyre crumbs and microqilular crumbs with two types - of latex recipes were used to prepare the samples. One latex formulation is about 60 per cent cheaper than the other. Together with the above variation the main emphasis was to determine the most suitable type of crumb and its particle size range which resulted in a surface having properties comparable with those of reference samples meant to be used as athletic tracks. The standard tests to evaluate the track performance are stipulated in DIN 18035 Part 6. However, these tests demand a set of specialized apparatus. These were not available and were not possible to turn out locally within the time frame of the project. Thus an attempt was made to compare the results 0 f the test samples with those of the reference samples by carrying out a set of short term standard tests commonly available. These short term tests showed that the proposed formulations give comparable results with the selected reference samples.