Notes on Module 3 (By DR.

Amaresh R Raichur ) Reference : D W Richerson

Design considerations are important variables and limitations that affect the engineering design
process. These include, (1) Requirement of applications, (2) Property Limitations, (3) Fabrications
limitations, (4) cost considerations, (5) Reliability requirements, (6) environmental effect, (7) safety
requirements, (8), user-friendliness, (9) ergonomics, (10) socio-political limitations, (11) local laws, (12)
aesthetics (13) materials choice (14)Dimensions and tolerances etc.

Design requirements, such as the objectives (most lightweight design, least material costs, fastest time-
to-market, etc.) and functions of the part, should be defined in the product planning stage itself.

Among fourteen mentioned above first 7 are important from engineering point of view (blue fonts).

1. Requirement of applications

These requirements are those needed for the component to work in the application. To
illustrate, if the component will be subjected to a bending load, then a functional requirement
for the material of the component will be to have sufficient bending strength.

2. Property Limitations
The performance of any component is limited by its material properties, such as stiffness, strength, and
toughness. Few examples are given in Table (below) Student has to be have knowledge of atleast one.

3. Fabrications limitations

Fabrication requirements are those by which the components may be processed to the required shape. If the
process is casting, then the material should be castables as processing affects a material’s functional
requirements. Casted ceramics and extruded ceramics have different properties because of change in porosity
and pre-existing flaws shapes, sizes and distribution.
4. Cost considerations
Material cost adds to the total cost, and there are limitations to the total cost of a component. Thus,
material cost has to be considered for its selection. If all other criteria are satisfied for two materials, then
the material of lower cost will be selected.

5. Reliability requirements
Reliability specifies how likely the system or its element would run without a failure for a given
period of time under predefined conditions.
A material is said to be reliable if a component made from it fulfills its intended application
without failure during its life period. Reliability depends not only on the material properties, but
also on the processing.

The factors to be considered for evaluation of reliability are

 The acceptable failure rate for the application
 The type of warranty for the system and its sub components
 Expectations of the potential customer
 Safety requirements defined by industry and or government

Above figure shows (a) acceptable reliability and (b) unacceptable reliability for a typical engineering
component.

6. Environmental effect,
Component dimensions, materials used and recycling , easy (less energy requirement) to
dispose and should have least impact on environment .

7. Safety requirements,
Components dimensions and material used should ensure that, components designed would
keep user as well as product safe from fre hazard, short circuits, earthquakes, etc.
 Lesson 2

Design Approaches
There are five approaches to design

1. Empirical
2. Deterministic
3. Probabilistic
4. Linear elastic fracture mechanics
5. Combined approach

Empirical Approach

This is a trial and error approach, an initially designed part is fabricated and tested for its suitability in
the application. If it does not serve the purpose fully, it is redesigned, re-fabricated, and retested. This
kind of cycle is repeated until it becomes suitable for the purpose. This approach becomes effective in
the following cases:
a. The part is already in use but requires modification.
b. Available property data are limited.
c. The survival of the part is strongly affected by the environment, eg: Corrosion and static fatigue

Deterministic Approach
In this approach, the maximum stress in a component is calculated by finite element analysis (FEM or FEA) or
closed-form mathematical equations. The material for the component is then selected that has a strength with a
reasonable margin of safety over the calculated peak stress. The safety factor is decided based on previous
experience. A typical; Safety factor is shown in below figure.

Parameters used to define (estimate) are as follows

(i) Design Stress: It is calculated by FEM by dividing the component in to a finite number of pieces
(elements) and stress distribution in each element is determined by closed formed equations. Using this
data of stress distributed in each element is plotted to have design stress distribution curve.
(ii) Material strength: Stress distribution of material strength is determined by testing appropriate
number of test bars for bending strength and plotted distribution curve using mean and standard
deviation of the sample data

and

SD=

Numerical For 5 number of specimens of your choice for each material, and write a critical note on
drawback of deterministic method based on population of data.

2. Determine standard deviation and mean from the following test data of strength and plot a normal
distribution curve and lognormal distribution curve using any computer program of your choice.

728, 734, 716, 680, 835 MPa.

Practice more problems from test books

Probabilistic Approach

The probabilistic approach considers the flaw distribution and stress distribution in the material. This approach will
be useful when high stresses and their complex distributions are present. In these situations, both empirical
and deterministic designs have limitations.

One can describe the strength distribution of a ceramic in a variety of formalisms.

The one most widely used today is the Weibull distribution
(W. Weibull, J. Appl. Mech., 18:293–297 (1951): Mat. Res. & Stds.. May 1962. pp. 405–411.)

Failure probably(F) and survival probability(S) according to Weibull’s distribution is a two-parameter

semiempirical distribution and is given by

….(1)

Where F=Failure probability in fraction (0 to 1) and S= Survival Probability in fraction (0 to 1) . Two parameters
are m and  and effects the distribution curve as follows:

Weibull distribution curve shows a bell-shaped curves the width of which depends on m; as m gets
larger, the distribution narrows. Since one is dealing with a strength distribution, the random variable
is defined as random variable, where  is failure stress and 0 is a normalizing parameter, required to
render random variable as dimensionless.

Rewriting Eq. (1) by taking the natural log on both sides twice yields

….(2)

Plotting
Where slope is m
Design methodology using Weibull modulus.

…(3)

Eqn (3) Shows the scaling of test data to component data and from plot, one can estimate the effect of
volume of strength.

The salient point here is that as either the volume increases or the Weibull modulus decreases, the more
severe the downgrading of the design stress required to maintain a given survival probability. Further,
ramification of the stochastic nature of brittle fracture is the effect of a critical flaw anywhere in the
sample will propagate with equal probability, It can be shown that the ratio of the tensile to flexural
strength
for an equal probability of survival is

Thus, m is an important parameter for design of brittle materials

Limitation
1. Does not takes into account of peak stress in the component
2. Thermal stress and other operational stresses are not accounted
3. To get accuracy of 3 decimal we, need 100 samples.
4. True strength (Absolute strength) cannot be estimated

Numerical

The strengths of 10 nominally identical ceramic bars were measured and found
to be 387, 350, 300, 420, 400, 367, 410, 340, 345, and 310 MPa. (a) Determine m
and a0 for this material, (b) Calculate the design stress that would ensure a survival
probability higher than 0.999.

Solution
j s F=j/N+1 S=1-F /0 ln(/0) lnln(1/S)

1 300 0.0909 0.9091 0.7752 -0.25464 -2.35062

2 310 0.1818 0.8182 0.8010 -0.22185 -1.60609
3 340 0.2727 0.7273 0.8786 -0.12948 -1.14428
4 345 0.3636 0.6364 0.8915 -0.11488 -0.79411
5 350 0.4545 0.5455 0.9044 -0.10049 -0.50065
6 367 0.5455 0.4545 0.9483 -0.05306 -0.23768
7 387 0.6364 0.3636 1.0000 0 0.011534
8 400 0.7273 0.2727 1.0336 0.03304 0.261813
9 410 0.8182 0.1818 1.0594 0.057732 0.533417
10 420 0.9091 0.0909 1.0853 0.08183 0.874591

=9.58