Does it matter where an RF-shielding fabric is damaged, and whether worn contacts go with the breaks?
research/garment-flexdamage
Correlated damage in the RF-shielding weave: worn contacts next to breaks (rc×10) raise the median sheet resistance at 20% broken from 2.05 to 3.03 segments; a fold band across the current direction at the same mean breakage leaves 57 of 60 draws open, while a fold along it helps. Stylised; wear multiplier is a sweep, not measured.
What it found
Follow-up to the contact-resistance model, on a 24×24 conductive weave with 60 draws per cell and bootstrap intervals. When contacts next to a broken yarn are worn (contact resistance ×k), the median sheet resistance at 20% broken and a base contact of one segment rises from 2.05 segment-resistances (k = 1) to 3.03 (k = 10). Clustering matters more: a fold band across the current that holds the mean break fraction fixed but breaks 4× as often inside the band leaves the weave open in 57 of 60 draws at 20% broken, while the same band along the current direction lowers the resistance to 1.43. Stylised: square lattice, one lattice size, a rule-of-thumb wear multiplier rather than a measured one, no flexing physics, and no measurement.
A figure from its own output
Paper, code and results
More in Engineered clothing
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Produced with AI assistance (Claude). Results are from the code in this repository and are simulated or stylised unless the abstract says otherwise; nothing here implies affiliation with or endorsement by any lab, researcher or company cited. MIT licensed.