Factors of Safety – FOS – are important for engineering design
Factors of Safety – FOS – are a part of engineering design and can for structural engineering typically be expressed as
FOS = Ffail / Fallow (1)
where
FOS = Factor of Safety
Ffail = failure load (N, lbf)
Fallow = allowable load (N, lbf)
Example – Structural Steel Column in a Building
Due to buckling the failure load of a steel column in a building is estimated to 10000 N. With a safety factor FOS = 5 – the allowable load can be estimated by rearranging (1) to
Fallow = Ffail / FOS (1b)
Fallow = (10000 N) / 5
= 2000 N
Typical overall Factors of Safety
Typical overall Factors of Safety:
| Equipment | Factor of Safety – FOS – |
| Aircraft components | 1.5 – 2.5 |
| Boilers | 3.5 – 6 |
| Bolts | 8.5 |
| Cast-iron wheels | 20 |
| Engine components | 6 – 8 |
| Heavy duty shafting | 10 – 12 |
| Lifting equipment – hooks .. | 8 – 9 |
| Pressure vessels | 3.5 – 6 |
| Turbine components – static | 6 – 8 |
| Turbine components – rotating | 2 – 3 |
| Spring, large heavy-duty | 4.5 |
| Structural steel work in buildings | 4 – 6 |
| Structural steel work in bridges | 5 – 7 |
| Wire ropes | 8 – 9 |
Design Factors of Safety are often published in technical standards but there is no dedicated standard to the subject.
Note that for statutory items such as cranes and pressure vessels FOS are specified in the design codes.
General recommendations
| Applications | Factor of Safety – FOS – |
| For use with highly reliable materials where loading and environmental conditions are not severe and where weight is an important consideration | 1.3 – 1.5 |
| For use with reliable materials where loading and environmental conditions are not severe | 1.5 – 2 |
| For use with ordinary materials where loading and environmental conditions are not severe | 2 – 2.5 |
| For use with less tried and for brittle materials where loading and environmental conditions are not severe | 2.5 – 3 |
| For use with materials where properties are not reliable and where loading and environmental conditions are not severe, or where reliable materials are used under difficult and environmental conditions | 3 – 4 |
Factor of Safety related to Stress
In general there is a linear connection between load and stress and the factor of safety can within mechanical engineering for normal stress be modified to
FOS = σfail / σallow (2)
where
σfail = failure normal stress (N/m2, psi)
σallow = allowable normal stress (N/m2, psi)
FOS for shear stress can be expressed as
FOS = τfail / τallow (3)
where
τfail = failure shear stress (N/m2, psi)
τallow = allowable shear stress (N/m2, psi)
Be aware that in some cases there may not be a linearity between applied load and stress.
