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Factor of Safety PDF
Factor of Safety PDF
The factor of safety is often specified in a design code or standard, such as:
American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) – steel buildings &
bridges
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) – pressure vessels,
boilers, shafts.
American Concrete Institute (ACI)
National Forest Products Association (NFPA) – wood structures.
Aluminum Association (AA) – aluminum buildings & bridges.
Manner or loading:
¾ Static – applied slowly; remains applied or is infrequently removed.
¾ Repeated – fatigue failure may occur at stresses lower than static load
failure.
¾ Impact – high initial stresses develop.
• Possible misuse – designer must consider any reasonable foreseeable use &
misuse of product.
• Complexity of stress analysis – the actual stress in a part isn’t always known.
• Environment – temperature, weather, radiation, chemical, etc.
More factors:
Hazard of failure – what happens if the parts fail? What are the
consequences?
Costs – compromises sometimes have to be made. Never compromise for
safety when danger to life and property exist.
Weight – what market segment is this an issue?
Market segment – how does factor of safety, N, different in these market
segments?
Truck/bus industry
Off-highway industry
Aerospace industry
We will use the following factors of safety:
Design Factor, N
Manner of Ductile Materials Brittle Materials
Loading Sy basis Su basis Su basis
Static 2 --- 6
Repeated --- 8 10
Impact --- 12 15
Review of Chapter 3:
Or
If failure mode is shear (i.e. member loaded in shear such as rivet shown) the designer
must design to a design shear stress given by:
P
P