Patent ID: 8825457

Claim:
A method for predicting an expected life of a pliable material, comprising: modeling, by a computing device, the pliable material; simulating a strain on the pliable material, wherein simulating strain on the pliable material includes creating a strain results file; identifying, from the strain results file, at least one point of strain energy density on the pliable material; accessing a life prediction curve associated with the pliable material to determine a material file; creating a strain-material file by combining the strain results file and the material file; executing software to predict the expected life of the pliable material; predicting the expected life of the pliable material; and determining an effect of an available design space to determine a procedure for increasing the expected life of the pliable material, wherein the available design space includes a pillar height from about 10 microns to about 180 mm, a diameter from about 5 microns to about 170 mm, a tip radius from about 2 microns to about 170 mm, a draft angle from about 0 degrees to about 80 degrees, and a pillar spacing from about 5 microns to about 13 mm.