Modelling of Safety Factors in the Design of GRP Composite Products

An attempt has been made in this paper to arrive at the safety factor design of glass fibre reinforced polymer (GRP) composite products using graph theoretic model. In the conventional design and recommendations of the standards, these design factors affecting properties have been considered as independent, while in real applications these factors may interact/influence each other. Following the concept developed by the authors, a simple graph theoretic model has been used to determine overall factor of safety. This is described with the help of an example and it has been demonstrated that the proposed overall factor of safety is an appropriate and comprehensive measure of factor of safety. The proposed methodology is illustrated for a typical resin transfer moulded (RTM) fume hood. The concept can easily be extended for other applications.