DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Q. Analyze the risk of a current engineered device or structure or system based on this equation.  What factors impact vulnerability? What factors impact the other aspects of the risk equation in this case?




My choice of an engineering device that I would analyze the risk for would be a car, something that I'm very passionate about and something that makes a very direct use of the equation we talked about. The main risk that a car has is of getting into an accident on road and injuring the passengers in it.

 

Talking about the vulnerability, it depends on the type of road that the driver is going on, if its a hilly area with a lot of blind turns and unprotected edges, the car is far more vulnerable to slipping off or getting in an accident than driving in the countryside with a long road and nothing but fields all around. In the first case the driver is vulnerable to slip off a cliff, in the second one even if the driver goe off the road for a second, he'll just land on a rough patch of land and has the option to get back on road. Other factors that affect vulnerability is bad engineering and aerodynamics of the car. Also, having a car without any airbags puts the passengers in a very vulnerable position in case a crash does occur.

 

The probability of occurrence depends on both the road and the driver, if the road is rough and the driver is good, the probability is less, but if the driver is bad in either case, the probability of failure of the system increases immensely. When an accident occurs at a high speed, the damage done is far worse than low speed accidents.

 

The cost in this case is a very important factor. Generally, cars that are expensive have high quality material used in them and have far more safety features like excessive airbags, ABS and whole lot of technology to avoid accidents and if they do happen, to ensure the driver remains safe.

 

Lastly, the preparedness to deal with an accident would always help minimize the damage. Safety features like airbags are placed in a car beforehand so that in case a driver stops suddenly and hits his car, his head doesn't get hurt.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.