safety factors
Engineering cushion multipliers
Safety factors are margins built into engineering designs to account for uncertainty, variability, and unexpected stress.
A bridge rated to hold ten tons might be designed to withstand thirty—a safety factor of three.
The term extends beyond engineering: We built safety factors into our budget projections.
Also called factors of safety.
Needless duplication
- fault toleranceSystem continues despite failures
- robustnessResistance to failure
- durabilityResistance to wear
- maintainabilityEase of ongoing repair
quality assurance · service life · verification · validation · certification · compliance
Maximum supportable weight
- stress analysisStudy of internal forces
- structural integrityWholeness under load
- serviceabilityCapacity for practical use
- tensile strengthResistance to pulling force
redundancy
Needless duplication
- fault toleranceSystem continues despite failures
- robustnessResistance to failure
- durabilityResistance to wear
maintainability · quality assurance · service life · verification · validation · certification · compliance
load capacity
Maximum supportable weight
- stress analysisStudy of internal forces
- structural integrityWholeness under load
- serviceabilityCapacity for practical use
buffer
Protective intermediate space
leeway · contingency · reserve · clearance · tolerance · threshold · provision · slack · surplus · spare capacity
- material mechanicsstress-strain, tensile strength, elasticity, strain, ductility
- bridge engineeringgirders, arch bridges, beams, trusses, piers
- civil engineeringbridges, highways, tunnels, foundations, dams
- product designCAD, prototyping, design process, design iteration, specifications
- reference tablesmultiplication table, addition table, multiplication tables, times table, times tables
- structural engineeringstructural design, structural analysis, structural steel, structural engineering, stress analysis