Factor of safety
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Factor of safety (FoS), also known as safety factor, is a multiplier applied to the calculated maximum load (force, torque, bending moment or a combination) to which a component or assembly will be subjected. Thus, by effectively "overengineering" the design by strengthening components or including redundant systems, a Factor of Safety accounts for imperfections in materials, flaws in assembly, material degradation, and uncertainty in load estimates. An alternative way to use the safety factor is to derate the strength of the material to get a "design" strength.
- Sdesign = Syield / FoS
- Sdesign = Sproof / FoS
An appropriate factor of safety is chosen based on several considerations. Prime considerations are the accuracy of load and wear estimates, the consequences of failure, and the cost of overengineering the component to achieve that factor of safety. For example, components whose failure could result in substantial financial loss, serious injury or death usually use a safety factor of four or higher (often ten). Non-critical components generally have a safety factor of two. An interesting exception is in the field of aerospace engineering, where safety factors are kept low (about 1.15 - 1.25) because the costs associated with structural weight are so high. This low safety factor is why aerospace parts and materials are subject to more stringent testing and quality control.
A factor of safety of 1 implies no "overengineering" at all. Hence some engineers prefer to use a related term, Margin of Safety (MoS) to describe the design parameters. The relation between MoS and FoS is MoS = FoS − 1. Margin of Safety is often described in percentage, i.e. a 50% Margin of Safety is equivalent to a factor of safety of 1.5.
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