Abstract
In this chapter, we introduce the issues of design life, a background to structural reliability and some possible tools that can be useful when we go from concept to reality in our designs for habitats on the Moon. Reliability can be interpreted as the probability that the designed object will function within the design guidelines for the design life. A reliability design often includes an estimate of a rate of failure, perhaps as a function of time. A corollary of reliability is durability, which is a quantitative assessment of how an object ages over time and is still able to operate within the design guidelines. For mechanical components, aging occurs due to high-cycle fatigue, corrosion, other forms of wear, design stress exceedances, impacts, and friction effects, for example.
“We need to make sure it survives for a while.”
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Notes
- 1.
The Theorem of Total Probability encapsulates the requirement that the complete sample space, and the respective probabilities, be known so that probabilities of events can be calculated.
- 2.
Some at the time apparently knew that the Shuttle was not a 6-sided die but seemingly chose to ignore it, hoping for the best.
- 3.
A factor of safety is an engineering parameter that is an indicator of the level of knowledge about the system that is being designed. If everything is exactly known, and there are no uncertainties regarding the structure or its intended environment, then the factor is 1. If there is some uncertainty, then the engineer will design a stronger structure so that there is some overdesign. If the structure is designed to be 30 percent stronger in order to account for the uncertainties, then the factor of safety is 1.3. Generally, the range of safety factors for well-known structures and systems is between 1.1–1.3. If there is too much uncertainty, then testing is necessary.
- 4.
The Gaussian density is not the only, nor the best, approximation for life distribution. The Weibull probability density function has been proposed to give a better fit. On the Moon, we may expect other empirically-derived densities to govern.
- 5.
It is worth mentioning that it is quite likely that classified sources have much data on high-velocity impacts.
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Benaroya, H. (2018). Reliability and damage. In: Building Habitats on the Moon. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68244-0_11
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