The idea of quality assurance for sports surfaces originated in Germany in the late 1970s. DIN standards were developed by the Otto Graf Institute, affiliated with the University of Stuttgart, Germany. Using the ‘Artificial Athlete Berlin’ apparatus, which simulated the response of a typical athlete’s interaction with a sports surface, tests were applied to point elastic (synthetic), area elastic (wood), combination and mixed flooring systems. The German initiative led to the DIN Standard 18032 Part II (1991) and the DIN Pre-Standard 18032 Part II (2001); the pre-standard replaced the 1991 version of the standard within Germany but was not universally accepted outside Germany.
16.4
Sports surfaces
f a c i l i t i e s d e v e l o p m e n t
DIN 18032-2 has now been superseded by EN 14904: 2006 but the DIN standard remains important because it has been used for sports surfaces which will be with us for years to come and it embodies well-developed test methods and requirements for indoor sports surfacing that promote resilience and durability. The DIN 18032-2 standard requires testing of the characteristics in Table 16.1.
Force reduction quantifies the ability of a designed surface to cushion impact. This ‘shock absorption’ value is expressed as a percentage of the value resulting from the same impact on a concrete surface. So the higher the figure the softer the surface, with a minimum 53% quoted in the DIN standard. Correct shock absorption reduces fatigue and lowers the risk of injuries to knee joints and ankles.
Vertical deformation is a measurement of the vertical deflec- tion or bending of a surface at the point of impact. The higher the figure the softer the surface, with a minimum 2.3mm quoted in the DIN standard. Inadequate energy return in an aerobic floor causes sore ankles and unsafe conditions for strenuous exercise.
Conversely, excessive energy return increases injury risks due to trampoline-type effects.
Behaviour under rolling load is a pass or fail test, which verifies the ability of a surface construction to withstand a heavy load roll- ing across it. A loaded wheel is used to perform the test and a minimum 1500N (33.75lbf), representing a pass, indicates foot stability adequate to reduce foot roll-over and associated injuries.
Ball rebound is the measurement of the rebound height of a ball that has been dropped from a set height onto the surface.
This test result is expressed as a percentage of the rebound height of the same ball dropped on to a concrete surface. A higher
percentage means a higher rebound, with a minimum 90% quoted in the DIN standard.
Sliding coefficient is a test of the finishing product applied to the surface system. A leather-lined test foot dummy is rotated down onto the surface and the ‘drag’ curve recorded. The result is expressed as a decimal figure and the higher the figure, the more resistant the surface is to sliding. The DIN standard quotes a range of 0.4–0.6 because both too little and too much slide can cause problems of rotational and pivoting motions which strain human joints. Aerobic flooring at the median figure of 0.5 pro- vides for the demands of platform and other high-impact routines.
Extent of deformation trough is a measure of the vertical deflection or bending of a surface system recorded in multiple directions at a distance of 50cm (19.7in) from the point of impact.
This value is expressed as a percentage of the vertical deformation at the point of impact. The higher the percentage the greater is the spread of the trough to the surrounding area. An ideal sports surface reduces the spread of the trough to 15% or less in any direction. This is because, without proper impact isolation, sports participants’ movements can interfere with each other, increasing the possibilities of injury.
Sports hall floor coverings
Sports halls can rarely be reserved exclusively for athletic or dance activities. They are of a size and flexibility of use which gives them amenity value or revenue-earning potential for public or private assemblies, social events and cultural and entertain- ment purposes. It would, however, clearly be counter-productive to use a sports hall for such other purposes if the additional rev- enue generated were to be offset by damage, and hence cost, caused to the valuable performance surface.
Sports hall coverings date back to the late 1960s. They are used to prevent slip and fall accidents while at the same time protecting the underlying performance surface from damage caused by the movement of people or heavy objects. Types of floor covering material include carpeting, linoleum, vinyl, poly- ethylene and polyester. Typical material attributes include colour, filament size, weave count, weight, tear strength, tensile strength, adhesion, coefficient of friction, slip resistance, hydrostatic resis- tance, and fire resistance.
Test Requirement
Force reduction Min. 53%
Vertical deformation Min. 2.3mm
Behaviour under rolling load 1500N
Ball rebound Min. 90%
Sliding coefficient 0.4–0.6
Extent of deformation trough Max 15% (4 directions) Table 16.1 Test area elastic systems: requirement to
which each test point must comply without averaging (source: DIN 18032-2 standard)
Sports floors life cycle costing
Due to the variety of floors and floor coverings available, sports facilities owners, operators and managers should consider life cycle costing when deciding what flooring to have installed. The installed cost for each floor option under consideration is capital cost + installation cost + floor covering cost + any equipment cost.
The maintenance cost is maintenance materials cost per annum + labour cost per annum (average labour rate per hour × total hours worked per annum) × anticipated life in years and fractions of years of floor. Whole life cost (installed cost + maintenance cost) is divided by anticipated life in years for each floor option under consideration to give a comparative cost per annum.
Specifying indoor sports surfaces
For the life cycle costing calculation to be capable of validation, manufacturers must quote to a common specification. An indoor sports surface materials specification will include some, even all, of the following for the floor and, if appropriate, the floor cover- ing: dimensions (width, length, thickness); texture; colour; weight;
abrasion resistance; static load limit; dynamic load limit; chemical resistance; compression set; dimensional stability; fungus resis- tance; critical radiant flux; hardness; sound insulation; ball rebound; force reduction (shock absorption); area deflection;
coefficient of friction; light reflection; line paint; adhesive. The sports facilities design team, incorporating its facilities owner representative(s), may also require that the indoor sports surface system under consideration has been on the market for a specified number of years, will be manufactured in ISO 9001/ISO 14001 certified plant and is supplied/installed by a contractor/distributor approved by the system manufacturer and experienced in similar constructions over a specified number of years.
Cleaning indoor sports surfaces
Certain generalisations are applicable to sports surfaces, as to any indoor surface area in public use: people rarely slip on clean, dry floors; the principal cause of trip injuries is floors in poor condi- tion and/or bad housekeeping; hazards can be introduced by the
cleaning processes themselves. In the sports facilities that the authors use, the cleaning is excellent but the cleaners themselves are never seen, except in an emergency. This is because they always try always to clean the different parts of the building dur- ing those times when people are not using them. They plan not only to carry out their work with minimal disruption, but also to ensure that surfaces are dry before they are in use again. Cleaning staff can always be usefully consulted in any attempt to optimise the cleaning process because they work closer to the building than anybody else.
Gym mats
Gym mats are manufactured in all sorts of materials, linear dimen- sions, thicknesses and colours to suit a wide variety of sports-hall activities including gymnastics, aerobics, cheerleading, physical education, Pilates and yoga. They may be water-resistant, fire- retardant and have anti-bacterial properties.
16.5
Sutton Arena, Surrey: indoor pole vault (2003)
The wider and thicker (non-folding) gym mats are heavy and awkward to carry, and may be distributed around the sports hall using a gym mat trolley. Such trolleys often have a welded tubular steel frame, to eliminate sharp edges, with a wooden platform for the mats. They may use wheels, fixed castors and swivel castors – braked as appropriate.
Indoor pole vault
Pole vault beds need about 50m³ (1766ft³) of space. Their soft landing mattresses contain foam filling, which is a fire hazard.
These should be stored within 1.5m (4.9ft) of fire sprinkler nozzles or, better still, in separate, fire-resistant steel containers or out- houses. Storage requirements for pole vault stands are 4m (13.1ft) minimum ceiling height and 30m² (232ft²) of floor space, if stacked horizontally. Units must be fastened for storage in accor- dance with manufacturers’ recommendations. Specialist mobile
covers are available but, when the pole vault is in progress, these covers must always be completely clear of the landing area. In the USA in 2002 the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) made padding around the base of the standards holding the cross-bar mandatory, to improve safety. This padding had previously been recommended but not required. If spectators are present in the sports hall where the pole vault is taking place then, in common with other field events, the performance area should be distanced from the spectator seating.
Boxing rings
The boxing ring is a raised, square platform with a canvas surface overlying approximately 1in (25.4mm) of padding. Flexible ropes are secured to steel posts at the four corners of the ring. The dimensions of the ring depend on the organisation under whose auspices the boxing contest is staged. Rings range in size from 16.6
Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games:
the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC)
16ft × 16ft (4.8m × 4.8m) for smaller rings up to 20ft × 20ft (6m
× 6m) Olympic standard and above – to approximately 25ft × 25ft (7.6m × 7.6m).
Wrestling rings
Wrestling rings generally comprise an elevated steel beam and wood plank stage, covered by foam padding and a canvas mat.
The sides are then covered with an ‘apron’ to prevent spectators from seeing underneath. Around the ring are three cables, the
‘ring ropes’, encased in tubing (e.g. rubber hosing) and held up by turnbuckles. Ring dimensions range from approximately 14ft
× 14ft (4.25m × 4.25m) up to 20ft × 20ft (6m × 6m), with the 18ft × 18ft (5.5m × 5.5m) version being regarded as standard in the USA and Canada. The apron area of the ring floor extends 1– 2ft (30–60cm) beyond the ropes and the ring floor is generally 3–4ft (90–1.2m) above the ground. Rings may have a suspension
system with a large coil spring underneath the stage to reduce the impact of a fall. Softer springs are safer for the competitors but stiffer springs provide a more realistic visual experience for spectators. A newer style of ring construction uses a ‘flexi-beam’, instead of a spring, to transfer impact forces to the steel beams.
The term ‘squared circle’ is often used to refer to the wrestling ring. This originates from Greco-Roman wrestling, where the action takes place on a square mat with a circle painted on it.
This format is still used in amateur wrestling.
Velodromes
A velodrome will normally be among the new sports facilities built for an Olympic Games or Commonwealth Games. An example is the Dunc Gray Olympic Velodrome built for Sydney 2000 which, with its 130m × 100m span steel grid shell roof, is one of the largest structures of its type in the world. It was also 16.7
Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games:
Kelvinhall International Sports Arena
a world’s first in terms of construction sequence, erection being completed in record time without using temporary falsework or props (leaving the interior free for ongoing construction). Other achievements included sustainable design, the integration of acoustics and noise control into a naturally-ventilated building and a state-of-the-art stormwater environmental quality control system featuring a water ‘polishing’ pond.
Modern velodromes have steeply-banked oval tracks of two 180° circular banks connected by two straights. Outdoor tracks may be constructed of timber trusswork surfaced with rainforest wood strips. Indoor velodromes are usually built with less expen- sive pine surfaces. An alternative is the type of synthetic surface, supported on steel frames, that was introduced for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Tracks may range from 133m (436ft) to 500m (1640ft). Olympic standard velodromes may only measure between 250m and 400m, and the length must be such that a whole or half number of laps gives a distance of 1km. The smaller the track, the steeper is the banking – a 250m track banks around 45° and a 333m track banks around 32°. Shorter, newer and Olympic standard tracks tend to be in wood or synthetic materi- als. Longer, older or less expensive tracks may be in concrete,
macadam or sometimes cinder. The track infield (the ‘apron’) is separated from the track by a blue band (the côte d’azur). A 5cm (approximately 2in) wide black line, 20cm above the blue band, has an inner edge which defines the length of the track. The outside edge of a 5cm wide red line (the ‘sprinter’s line’) is located 90cm above the inside of the track. The zone between the red and black lines is the optimum route around the track. A rider leading in this zone cannot be passed on the inside – other riders must pass on the longer outside route. Design challenges include the fact that, although a cyclist and bike may have a combined weight of less than 100kg (220lb), allowance has to be made for motor pacing which may involve four cyclists trailing four motor cycles at 85kmh (53mph). This will create massive centrifugal force through, say, a 24m radius curve, such that even a sprint cyclist can be subject to a 4g force through the final curve, which equates to half a tonne on the wheels.
16.8
Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games:
Chris Hoy Velodrome
i n d o o r s p o r t s s u r f a c e s
Back to the future
Among the carvings in the tomb of Kheti at Beni Hassan (Egypt’s Middle Kingdom, approximately 2040–1640bc) there is a depic- tion of two boys sitting back-to-back with arms intertwined and legs outstretched. The point of their game seems to be either to move the opponent from his position or to stand up from the sitting position. Archaeologists have referred to the boys as ‘sitting on the ground’. This is not so – it is clear to the authors that one boy is seated on the ground and the other is seated on a slightly raised surface. Could the raised surface be a ‘gym mat’, in use well before the gymnasium was invented in ancient Greece (1100–146bc)? Could the difference in seated height of the two boys, created by the mat, be fundamental to the rules of the game being played?
16.9
Tomb of Kheti, Beni Hassan, Egypt: carving (2100–1900BC)
17.1
Harborough Leisure Centre: Spinning Hall ceiling (2008)
Introduction
Heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) are means by which a controlled thermal environment is created within a build- ing. In the case of sports facilities, the aim is not only to achieve comfortable conditions for the building users but also conditions which enhance user performance. Thermal comfort depends on the temperature of the air surrounding the human body, the tem- perature of adjacent surfaces, the relative humidity of the air and movement by the air. It is a complicated business because it has to take into account the building users, building contents and the building fabric.
Additional complications of achieving thermal comfort for sports buildings arise because many very different activities take place within them. Even similar types of activity may demonstrate differences in appropriate thermal comfort. For example, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends a temperature of 60–68°F (15.5–20°C) for court sports but a tem- perature of 60–65°F (15.5–18.3°C) for squash courts (with, in each case, relative humidity of 60% or less and 8–12 air exchanges per hour for enclosed courts). Appropriate temperatures for dif- ferent types of general activity pursued within sports buildings range from circa 68°F (20°C) for heavier-clothed winter activities to circa 70°F (21°C) for lightly-clothed summer activities, circa 72°F (22°C) for all-year-round sedentary activities and circa 78°F (26°C) for bathing and showering (a temperature that would otherwise cause drowsiness).
A further complication is the fact that the rate of heat flow through most media between points of different thermal potential is slow. Account has therefore to be taken of ‘thermal lag’ or
‘thermal inertia’.
C h a p t e r 1 7
Heating, ventilating and air-conditioning
Ventilation strategy
Many ventilation strategy options are available from within the three categories of totally natural, totally mechanical and mixed mode (a combination of natural and mechanical). Natural ventila- tion, which uses the pressure differential of the external and internal environment, requires little or no energy input. Mechanical ventilation can be provided by a fan system designed to meet specific air-change requirements, occupancy levels and user
17.2
Barnsley Metrodome (1993)
activities (associated heat recovery systems can reduce the cost of cooling or heating incoming air by recovering energy from cool or warm exhaust air). Mixed-mode ventilation uses natural ventilation but with air-conditioning, operated at part-load, to heat or cool as demand increases or climate changes.
Designing heating and cooling systems
Heating and cooling plant is needed to achieve and maintain a constant and desirable internal temperature, balancing out heat gains and losses by transferring heat between airstreams, from building areas of heat gain to building areas of heat loss. Plant
sizing is based on the characteristics of the building fabric, the building orientation, data collected on the extreme external temperature variations and solar conditions, and data collected on the building’s internal sources of heat gain and loss.
Variations in heat loss throughout the day can, assuming a constant warm indoor temperature, be calculated from the exter- nal temperature data by applying an equation of thermal transmit- tance for the building fabric. Internal heat gains can be computed from the heat output of the various activities taking place within the building together with the outputs of heat-emitting fittings, devices and equipment in use. The other inputs to the calculation (building fabric and building orientation/solar gain) suggest that HVAC issues need to be considered at early stages in the planning and design processes.
Criteria determining the sizing and selection of the ventilation system include:
17.3
Barnsley Metrodome (1993)
introduction of adequate quantities of fresh air for building
• users;
removal of impure air and odours;
•
control of humidity levels;
•
control of summertime internal temperatures;
•
control of temperature throughout the year, where the ventila-
•
tion system is also used for space heating;
sports-driven requirements such as the need to maintain low
•
air movement in playing zones (e.g. air velocity of less than 0.1m/sec for badminton);
acoustics, noise and vibration.
•
Adequate indoor air quality (IAQ) cannot be achieved without adequate ventilation. Poor IAQ leads to sick building syndrome.
HVAC systems incorporate filters to clean air but, if the filters are dirty or damp – or if there is uncontrolled moisture in ducts
or drip pans – then the HVAC system can itself become a source of pollution. This flags up the crucial importance of systems maintenance, through efficient facilities management, which will not only maintain IAQ but will also decrease operating costs (because properly-maintained equipment operates more efficiently).
Multidisciplinary team approach
When the HVAC engineering of sports facilities is considered, clear benefits can be seen from deliberate joining up of the plan- ning, building design and facility management processes.
Fundamentally, user demands established in the planning stages determine the size of building required, and the requisite size 17.4
Airdrie Leisure Pool (1997)