What Is a Good Mechanical Design?

Components afflicted with dangerous notches could certainly be redesigned simply by over-dimensioning in order to eliminate the chance of failure. The idea here is to use more material (thicker walls etc.) so as to keep the stress, σ₀, acting far away from the notch, at such a low value that the maximum stress σ_max. = F ·σ₀ caused by the notch is still small enough to exclude crack formation. There is little expertise in such a procedure as the component would be senselessly over-weight, although unfortunately this is sometimes current practice. This solution to the problem is also bad in other ways: the zones far away from the notch are by no means fully loaded and represent unnecessary ballast during the working of the component, which uses up energy, while the zone near the notch with just adequate material leads an uneasy life on the brink of potential fracture.