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All 4 Flashcards — Safety factor
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Question
Define the safety factor.
Answer
The ratio of a structure's absolute strength — the load at which it actually fails — to the allowable load it is designed to carry. Allowable load = absolute strength ÷ SF.
Question
What does the safety factor margin cover?
Answer
Material variation, manufacturing defects, users overloading or misloading the product, degradation over time from corrosion and fatigue, and the assumptions made in the calculation.
Question
What decides how large a safety factor should be?
Answer
The consequence of a failure, the certainty of the loads, and whether the part can be inspected. A rope carries a far larger factor than a shelf bracket.
Question
Why is a larger safety factor not automatically better?
Answer
It means more material, mass, cost and embodied impact, and sometimes a product that is worse to use. An over-specified part is a design failure, not a cautious success.
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Topic 3.2 hub
Structural systems
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