Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica y Mecatrónica, Facultad de Ingeniería, Sede Bogotá

Factor of Safety
Resistencia de materiales
2020-1S
 Failure Definition

“Failure refers to any action that causes the

member of a structure or machine to cease to
function satisfactorily.”
“(…) each failure theory is only an attempt to
model the mechanism of failure for a given class of
material”

Urugal, “Mechanical Design”, pg 266 2

 Types of Mechanical Failures

• Ductile yielding
• Fragile fracture
• Excessive elastic deflection
• Buckling
• Fatigue
• Impact

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 Types of Mechanical Failures

• Creep
• Relaxation
• Thermal shock
• Wear
• Corrosion
• Environmental Stress cracking
• Corrosion Stress cracking
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 Factor of Safety

“The actual failure mechanism in an element can

be quite complicated; (…) In each case a factor of
safety is employed to provide the required safety
and reliability”
Urugal, “Mechanical Design”, pg 266

“Engineers employ a factor of safety to ensure

against the foregoing unknown uncertainties”
Urugal, “Mechanical Design”, pg 266

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 Types of Uncertainties
◼ Assumptions made in stress-strain analysis

◼ Assumptions made in load analysis

◼ Nature of failure and failure consequences

◼ Material composition and properties

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 Types of Uncertainties
◼ Effects of manufacturing process

◼ Effects of heat treatment

◼ Effects of wear and/or corrosion

◼ The number of existing uncertainties

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 Choosing a Factor of Safety

failure load
N= = N material  N stress  N geoemtry  N failure analysis  N reliabilit y
allowable load

Nmaterial Description
1.0 Material properties are well known, experimentally obtained from tests on
a specimen known to be identical to the component being designed and
from test representing the loading to be applied
1.1 Material properties are known from a handbook or are manufacturer’s
values

1.2-1.4 Material properties are not well known

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 Choosing a Factor of Safety

failure load
N= = N material  N stress  N geoemtry  N failure analysis  N reliabilit y
allowable load

Nstress Description
1.0-1.1 Load is well defined as static or fluctuating; there are no anticipated
overloads or shock loads; an accurate stress analysis method has been
used.
1.2-1.3 The nature of the load is defined in an average manner; overloads of 20-
50 percent; stress analysis method with errors less than 50 percent.

1.4-1.7 Load is not well known or the stress analysis method is of doubtful
accuracy.

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 Choosing a Factor of Safety

failure load
N= = N material  N stress  N geoemtry  N failure analysis  N reliabilit y
allowable load

Ngeometry Description
1.0 Manufacturing tolerances are tight and held well

1.0 Manufacturing tolerances are average

1.1-1.2 Dimensions are not closely held

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 Choosing a Factor of Safety

failure load
N= = N material  N stress  N geoemtry  N failure analysis  N reliabilit y
allowable load

Nfailure Description
1.0-1.1 Failure analysis is derived from the stress state, as for uniaxial or
multiaxial static stresses, or fully reversed uniaxial fatigue stresses.

1.2 Failure analysis is a simple extension of the above theories, such as for
multiaxial, fully reversed fatigue stresses or uniaxial nonzero mean fatigue
stresses.
1.3-1.5 Failure analysis is not well developed, as with cumulative damage or
multiaxial nonzero mean fatigue stresses

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 Choosing a Factor of Safety

failure load
N= = N material  N stress  N geoemtry  N failure analysis  N reliabilit y
allowable load

Nreliability Description
1.1 Reliability for the part does not need to be high (less than 90 percent)

1.2-1.3 Reliability is an average of 92-98 percent

1.4-1.6 Reliability must be high (greater than 99 percent)

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 References
• David G. Ullman. The Mechanical Design Process, 4th
ed. McGraw-Hill, 2010.

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