Designing for Safety Sheet Answers

Designing for Safety

In this section, you will learn about some of the ways in which designers plan safety into structures and the factors they consider when designing and monitoring them.

Risk Management

No one can design a structure to be 100% failure proof. The materials may wear down over time. A person may use it incorrectly and break it. Unexpected forces might come into play.

Engineers use the techniques of risk management to reduce the risk of failure as much as possible. They deal with known risks in one of three ways:

Ignore the risk

Avoid the risk

Design for the risk

When a risk is highly unlikely to occur, it can be ignored E.g., an elephant sitting on a classroom chair.

Building a bridge with no supports in the water is a way to avoid the risk of boats colliding with the bridge supports.

When designers design for risk they often over-compensate for the various risks. They often make the structure stronger than it really needs to be; e.g., stronger bridge supports in the water in case of a boat collision.

They also build in back-up systems and warning systems that may use sensors

Designing for Loads

When designing a structure, the designers must calculate the load it will support. They design the chair to support more than itself plus the maximum occasional load.  Some structures have warning notices about the maximum load they are designed to support e.g., an elevator.

Designing for Safety

The Ontario Building code gives minimum standards for all aspects of building, including load bearing design and materials. This assures the public of a certain level of safety.

The Ontario Fire code is a law in Ontario that states that every home in Ontario must have working smoke alarms on every floor and outside sleeping areas. Properly installed smoke alarms can warn people to get out of a burning building. This reduces the number of fire related injuries and deaths.

Designing for Efficiency

Something described as “efficient” operates well without a waste of time, effort or expense E.g., if two students build bridges that can support the same load, the bridge that uses the lesser amount of materials (usually by weight) is considered more efficient

Sensors

A sensor is any device that can detect or measure real- world conditions.  Different sensors can detect heat, light, pressure, or sound; as well as changes in the amounts of these things.

Make a list of the sensors found in your home:

Smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors and thermostats

How are sensors used in entertainment?

Wii, and Xbox connect, dance video game. 

Where are motion detectors used?

Automatic doors, automatic lights, automatic taps, motion sensors for alarms, reverse sensors, garage door sensor,

How do engineers use sensors to make people safe?

Security cameras that sense noise, traffic lights, vibration sensors for weaknesses in the building.