FACTOR OF SAFETY AND INDICATORS OF FAILURE

INDICATORS OF FAILURE
Failure of a machine part in static loading may be indicated by one of three events:
1) Ductile material yielding because induced stress has reached yield strength
2) Brittle material fracture because induced stress has reached ultimate strength
3) Excessive deflection of the part that causes loss of function, including slender
column where the deflection causes elastic instability and buckling
BRITTLE VERSUS DUCTILE MATERIAL
A rough guide employs percent elongation at fracture obtained from the tensile test of the
material
1) Ductile materials have Percent Elongation > 5%
2) Brittle materials have Percent Elongation<5%
FACTOR OF SAFETY AND ASSESSMENT OF ADEQUACY
Design considerations for a machine part are factors or variables that are expected to
influence the parts performance of its intended function. Such factors include:
1)
2)
3)
4)

Ability to perform function

Strength/ stress
Deflection/rigidity
Wear/resistance to indentation

5)
6)
7)
8)

Corrosion resistance
Manufacturability
Reliability
Maintainability e.t.c

The design seeks to ensure that the factors or considerations are enough1, (adequate but not
wasteful).
Assessing the part for adequacy with respect to a particular consideration consists of
determining the indicator value required, and the margin by which that indicator value is
exceeded.
ADEQUACY ASSESSMENT OF STRENGTH VERSUS STRESS
1) For a part subject to external load, various indicators of strength which may be used
are tensile strength, yield strength, fatigue strength etc. The indicator of strength to be
applied will depend on the material from which the part is made, and the type of load
(static or variable)
2) To test for adequacy, a stress identified as relevant, because it is the one expected to
cause failure, and this stress may be tensile, shear, principal, von-Mises, etc
3) A particular location of the part is identified as the location where failure is expected
to occur, and the pair of strength and stress selected is compared at this location.
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Mechanical Engineering Design, Shigley, J., 2004, McGraw Hill, page 26

4) Adequacy is the margin by which the strength exceeds the stress, so that failure is
avoided
5) Adequacy therefore depends on how accurately the strength and stress are known,
6) Adequacy also depends on what margin between strength and stress is enough
7) The adequacy of the part with respect to strength can therefore be assessed by
comparing the strength of the part to the stress induced at the chosen location of the
part
8) When the strength and stress are compared by dividing the strength by the stress, the
adequacy assessment is referred to as the factor of safety, or design factor.
9) When design starts with a material of known strength, the next step is to choose
geometry and dimension of the part that is able to carry the object load.
10) A factor of safety therefore identifies an allowable stress, or design stress that is used
to determine required dimension for the part.
11) The allowable stress is the strength divided by the factor of safety.
12) Where the design is complete, the actual factor of safety is determined by comparing
the strength of the part, with the stress induced when the part of known dimension is
subject to the object load.
FACTOR OF SAFETY FOR OTHER MEASURES OF LOSS OF FUNCTION
1) The factor of safety can be generalized to be applied to other indicators that signify
loss of function for the part, such as load and deflection.
2) For example, a slender column subject to compression will fail by buckling, and the
loss of function is therefore signified by the buckling load, rather than the
compressive strength. The buckling load can therefore be used as the loss of function
load, to be compared with expected load to obtain a factor of safety for the column.
3) Similarly, in the case of a member where failure is indicated by a certain value of
deflection that would cause loss of function, then that loss of function deflection can
be used for comparison with the expected deflection, and a factor of safety obtained
to assess adequacy.
4) What if the loss of function occurs as a result surface failure in fatigue caused by
contact stresses?
5) The consequence of failure, in this case, is seen as wear of the surface after several
load applications.
6) A limit for the wear of the part can then be specified in terms of a life (number of load
applications) before a certain level of wear occurs.
7) A load that will give the desired life can then be chosen as the safe load, since a
greater load will reduce the life.
8) Loss of function from wear is a gradual occurrence and the specification of life
therefore answers the question of what is the margin between loss of function load
and the operating load.

SELECTING THE FACTOR OF SAFETY

Variables that influence the selection of the factor of safety are:
1) Material property used as the indicator of loss of function such as strength, loss of
function load, loss of function deflection etc, and its variation or uncertainty
2) Expected variation or uncertainty in the final dimensions of the part, which cannot be
controlled by design, because it is in the manufacturing process
3) Assumptions employed in the design analysis as a means of predicting stress and
deflection from the load applied
CHOOSING THE MAGNITUDE OF THE FACTOR OF SAFETY
One of the major factors influencing the magnitude of the factor of safety to be employed in
design is the expected consequence of failure. Consequences of failure can be classified in
categories such as:
1) Inconvenience
2) Loss of time

3) Financial loss
4) Loss of life

CODES OF PRACTICE AND REGULATIONS

When product failure is likely to cause loss of life, codes of practice are developed as part
of national and international standards to prescribe the factor of safety that will prevent
failure and therefore loss of life.
Examples of such codes of practice and standards are available for design of pressure
vessels and boilers
In such standards, the material to be used, the material properties, and the allowable
stresses are specified, and hence the factor of safety is specified.
CHOOSING THE FACTOR OF SAFETY FOR OTHER MACHINE PARTS
For other machine parts where the designer is free to choose the factor of safety, this is
done by considering the material concerned and the mode of failure expected.
GUIDELINES2 FOR CAST IRON SUBJECT TO STATIC LOADING
1) The indicator of failure is ultimate tensile or compressive strength
2) Failure is expected to occur when the tensile or compressive stress reaches the
ultimate tensile or compressive strength at any location
3) Material is not as homogeneous as steel and often carries residual stresses from
the casting process
4) A value of 3 to 5 is recommended for factor of safety
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Design of Machine Elements, Bhandari, V.B., page 69, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Ltd

DUCTILE MATERIALS SUBJECT TO STATIC LOAD-STEEL

1) The indicator of failure is yield strength
2) Failure is expected to occur when the tensile or compressive stress reaches the
tensile or compressive yield strength at any location
3) A value of 1.5 to 2 is recommended for factor of safety to be applied on the yield
strength in tension or compression
DUCTILE MATERIALS SUBJECT TO VARIABLE LOAD-STEEL
1) The indicator of failure is endurance or fatigue strength
2) Fatigue failure depends on both the magnitude of stress and the number of loading
cycles
3) Fatigue strength also varies with material properties as well as other factors that
are unique to the part such as:
a) Yield strength
b) Stress concentration
c) Surface finish
d) Size
e) Temperature of part
4) Fatigue failure is sudden and total, in a similar manner to the static failure of
brittle materials
5) A value of 1.3 to 1.5 is recommended for factor of safety to be applied on the
fatigue strength
COLUMN FAILURE BY BUCKLING
1) Members loaded in compression are likely to fail by buckling
2) Buckling is caused by elastic instability which results in large deflection of the
compression member
3) Buckling load depends on
a. Compressive load
b. Yield strength of the material
c. Modulus of elasticity of the material
d. End conditions for the column, such as fixed/fixed, pivoted/pivoted,
free/fixed, pivoted/fixed.
4) A factor of safety of 3 to 6 is recommended to be applied on the buckling load
5) For a given column dimension and end conditions, the Euler column formula
expresses the critical unit load in terms of the slenderness ratio, the modulus of
elasticity, and the end conditions constant.
6) The critical unit load expresses the loss of function load on which the factor of
safety is to be applied.

PARTS SUBJECT TO CONTACT STRESSES

Parts such as cams, gear teeth, bearings, rail wheel on rail, are subject to contact
stresses between the surfaces which result in local failure of the surface by pitting.
This is local failure caused by contact stress reaching endurance strength of the surface
material at the point of contact.
Such local failure does not render the entire machine element out of operation. Pitting is
therefore a form of wear since the machine element continues to operate.
A factor of safety of 1.8 to 2.5 is recommended to be applied on the surface endurance
strength.