Case Study: Royal TenCate achieves FIFA-compliant, high-performance artificial turf design with Dassault Systemes (Abaqus FEA)

Artificial Turf Gains Ground with Realistic Simulation

Royal Ten Cate, the world’s leading producer of synthetic grass fibers and field components, faced the challenge of designing turf that meets FIFA’s detailed performance and safety regulations across varied climates and impact patterns. To predict how fibers, infill and backing interact under foot and ball impacts and to fine‑tune material choices and geometry, Royal Ten Cate and engineering partner Reden BV turned to Abaqus FEA from Dassault Systemes.

Reden used Dassault Systemes’ Abaqus FEA to build multi‑scale models (micro fiber → meso infill → macro field), run virtual bending, triaxial compression, ball‑bounce and “artificial athlete” simulations, and validate those models against FIFA‑mandated outdoor tests. The full‑field simulations—exceeding 250,000 elements and two million degrees of freedom—showed strong agreement with physical tests, enabling TenCate to evaluate and optimize fiber, infill and backing combinations for improved safety and playing performance.

Royal Ten Cate

Marco Ezendam

Director of Reden BV (Research Development Nederland), Engineering Consultants