Tracking the Cracks

Roland Piquepaille writes "Israeli physicists from the Weizmann Institute have used a new approach to study how materials break. In a short news release, brilliantly titled "Breaking news", they explain their new method for analyzing the progression of a forming crack. The news release even says that it could have help engineers predict 'exactly how much pressure the levees protecting New Orleans could withstand before giving way.' This method could be used by engineers and material scientists in a vast variety of applications."

Comments

Plumbers

[Mozk]

Plumbers should especially pay attention.

Practically applicable?

[onlysolution]

In the article they say taht they have applied their method to a variety of materials, namely plastic, glass and metal. There is a common thread there though, in that all three are higly regular materials. In an earthen levee, or even a contcrete one, the materials used to make are way more irregular than what they have tested their methods with. It sounds like the connection to New Orleans levees is really premature to me.

Interesting

[tsa]

I'm currently involved in the making of 3D nano devices. One of the steps involved in the making of these things is the breaking of a silicon wafer. This is currently the least reliable step in our process, and we sure are very interested in ways to improve this.

Slightly misleading summary

[gunpowda]

It would be great if submitters of content actually read it, and made it as 'brilliant' as their attempted irony.

The news release even says that it could have help engineers predict 'exactly how much pressure the levees protecting New Orleans could withstand before giving way.'

No, it doesn't. That's a rhetorical question in the first paragraph.