What is the difference between design factor and safety factor?
The difference between the safety factor and design factor (design safety factor) is as follows: The safety factor is how much the designed part actually will be able to withstand (first "use" from above). The design factor is what the item is required to be able to withstand (second "use"). The design factor is defined for an application (generally provided in advance and often set by regulatory code or policy) and is not an actual calculation, the safety factor is a ratio of maximum strength to intended load for the actual item that was designed.
Factor of safety = ultimate stress/working stress
Design load being the maximum load the part should ever see in service.
By this definition, a structure with a FOS of exactly 1 will support only the design load and no more. Any additional load will cause the structure to fail. A structure with a FOS of 2 will fail at twice the design load.
The Design factor is defined for an application (generally provided in advance and often set by regulatory code or policy) and is not an actual calculation, the safety factor is a ratio of maximum strength to intended load for the actual item that was designed.