Repairing load‐bearing bones using scaffolds composed entirely of glass, cross sectional view on the top left, is especially challenging due to the brittle and catastrophic failure characteristics of glass when subjected to flexural or tensile stresses. The cross‐sectional view of the scaffold, on the top right, is also composed of a glass fiber core, but this core is encased in a 500 micronlayer of Polylactic acid (PLA), a composite scaffold. When loaded in four‐point bending, the bare glass fiber core undergoes only a small deflection before it fails catastrophically, as shown in the bottom image. However, the composite scaffold on the right is much stronger and continues to be load bearing without catastrophic failure. It behaves as a ductile material.
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