Researchers forecast failure in disordered materials
(PHYSorg.com Chemistry)

Disordered materials-such as cellular foams, fiber and polymer networks-are popular in applications ranging from architecture to biomedical scaffolding. Predicting when and where these materials may fail could impact not only those materials currently in use, but also future designs. Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of California Los Angeles were able to forecast likely points of failure in two-dimensional disordered laser-cut lattices without needing to study detailed states of the material.