The engineering concept of design lifetime.

Do engineers design products with a limited lifetime just so they will need to be replaced? In this video I describe the engineering principle of design lifetime. I have worked in engineering design in the wind industry for the past 8 years, and I will explain some of the reasons why engineers use a design lifetime in this industry and others.

Topics covered include:
how long does a wind turbine last?
how wind turbine subsystems are interrelated
what are the critical components that prevent wind turbines from lasting longer
how making some components stronger can actually cause a shorter overall lifetime
what is fatigue loading and how does it affect how long a wind turbine lasts
how the fast pace of technology evolution affects design of long lifetime products like wind turbines

I published a written version of this topic on Medium:
https://uxdesign.cc/arewindturbines...

These two YouTubers kindly gave permission for me to use their footage:
Elezher    / @elezher_  
Replacing the chassis of Nissan Frontier 07 (Timelapse)
   • Video  

Kym Chapman    / @kymchapman1110  
Wind Turbine Blade Bearing Exchange
   • Wind Turbine  Blade Bearing Exchange  

Image/ footage credits:
Yallourn power plant (modern photo)
Stephen Edmonds from Melbourne, Australia / CC BYSA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)

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