Safety Factor for Permanently Installed overhead Features
Safety Factor for Permanently Installed overhead Features
(OP)
Hello,
I am designing a system to permanently overhang A/V equipment overhead. It is essentially a beam supported by steel cables every 8 feet, with an assumed constant loading of equipment. I have been following the safety factor of 5 for rigging for all aspects of my design, including connections mounting equipment to the beam, calcs for the beams max allowable moment, etc. It's got me wondering - Should the SF of 5 really only be applied to the cables/picks and associated hardware specifically, or should it apply to all aspects of my design? An example, I posted yesterday about a midbeam bolt splice design. My material is 31 KSI fy, which drops to 15.5ksi allowable for shear and then divided by 5 again to 3.1 ksi max allowable shear, which is making it somewhat challenging to actually get a working bolted splice design midspan of the beam. But of course, if it's appropriate, it should be followed.
I am designing a system to permanently overhang A/V equipment overhead. It is essentially a beam supported by steel cables every 8 feet, with an assumed constant loading of equipment. I have been following the safety factor of 5 for rigging for all aspects of my design, including connections mounting equipment to the beam, calcs for the beams max allowable moment, etc. It's got me wondering - Should the SF of 5 really only be applied to the cables/picks and associated hardware specifically, or should it apply to all aspects of my design? An example, I posted yesterday about a midbeam bolt splice design. My material is 31 KSI fy, which drops to 15.5ksi allowable for shear and then divided by 5 again to 3.1 ksi max allowable shear, which is making it somewhat challenging to actually get a working bolted splice design midspan of the beam. But of course, if it's appropriate, it should be followed.