Rebound Ace Tennis Court Surface: The Effect of Temperature on the Coefficient of Friction

The study was conducted to determine if temperature affects the safety of Rebound Ace™ surface. The objective of this study is to determine how the COF changes as the Rebound Ace™ tennis court surface temperature increases. The lack of literature on this subject leads to the question of the surface’s safety at higher temperatures. A sample of Rebound Ace™ tennis court surface was tested at eight temperatures related to the climate of Melbourne in January with four different shoes to determine how the COF changes with an increase in temperature.

Temperature and shoe brand were both found to be significant factors in the COF. However, the COF did not show a steady increase as the surface temperature of the Rebound Ace™ tennis court increased; the COF instead varied over the range of temperatures. The COF actually decreased over the higher temperatures (115 to 155 degrees F) and was lowest at the highest temperature of 155 degrees F. The Nike Air Zoom Thrive had the lowest COF across all temperatures.

The results of this study indicate that the Rebound Ace™ tennis court surface may not be a safety issue at higher temperatures. This finding indicates that the surface properties may change with the temperature. One such change could be that the surface liquefies at higher temperatures. The results of the temperature’s effect on the COF in this study could lead one to believe that the surface is actually safer at higher temperatures. However, there were limitations in the study with respect to sample size, normal load amount, measurement of rotational friction, and measurements in the field that prevent this conclusion from be generalized for real life playing situations. Further research is needed to examine the true frictional behavior of the shoe-surface interface and introduce real playing forces.