Materials analysis has become increasingly important in the development of most physical products produced today. To better use resources such as plastics in a cell phone handset, for example, detailed simulations of the injection molding process are performed to understand how well the plastic will meet the flexibility and durability requirements of the final product, without air pockets or other materials failures.

In the automotive industry, the same sort of analysis is performed, but more important to most people, crash-safety features such as front-fender crumple zones and main-body safety-cage deformation in a simulated crash are also validated with finite element analysis and simulation.