4 ms·
I'm not a civil or aerospace engineer so this could be built into the safety factor models already. Reading the post had me wondering: If safety factor adds ma
by bretpiatt 5y ago
I'm not a civil or aerospace engineer so this could be built into the safety factor models already. Reading the post had me wondering:
If safety factor adds mass and additional mass requires additional force to accelerate is a lower safety factor safer since you'll lower the amount of force required thus increasing the structural safety?
Calculating safety factor for a given scenario feels like a complex multivariable equation. Is that the case?
- bandrade 5y agoYes, all (essentially all) engineering design ends up being multivariable. For even something as simple as a cantilevered beam supporting a load, if you can change the shape, material, material treatment, length, width/height, all of which affects cost. Usually due to limits of manufacturing and availability of standard parts, the exploration space can be greatly reduced.
- Galxeagle 5y agoAlso not an engineer but watching a real-world example of that thought process was fascinating during NASA and SpaceX's design process for Dragon Capsule, that contained a requirement that the capsule needed to have a statistical probability of loss-of-crew less than 1:270 flights, which is the alternative design measure in TFA. One challenge was NASA's modelling of in-orbit micrometeorite strikes was complex, and there were concerns that extra complexity to provide redundancy and armor would make an overall less-safe vehicle. “Blindly striving to achieve a statistical loss of crew number may drive you to design a system that is less safe" -Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operation [0] [0] https://spacenews.com/commercial-crew-vehicles-may-fall-short-of-safety-threshold/ https://spacenews.com/commercial-crew-vehicles-may-fall-shor...