We built simple circuits for three engineering applications: (i) a toy, (ii) pro

Question

We built simple circuits for three engineering applications: (i) a toy, (ii) protecting a basement, and (iii) monitoring a nuclear power plant. I was not in class, these circuits were designed to identify when water was present (inside the toy, in the basement of the building, or below the cooling system in the power plan). Based on this very brief introduction to the class project, I am supposed to provide brief responses to both of the following: (a) What drove the designs for these three applications to be different (despite having the same possible components of a battery, wires, buzzer, and light)? (b) Through that class project, we introduced the concept of redundancy in engineering design. BRIEFLY define why redundancy might not be used in the toy project, but is an absolute necessity in the nuclear power plant.

Explanation / Answer

(a) In all the three systems a circuit is present to detect presence of water. But the damage due to the presence of water in the three systems is different. For Nuclear reactor the presence below cooling system might render the system unstable and the plant might explode. In basement if there is water the circuits might get damaged due to short circuit. In toy system the water might damage the chip present in it and might cause a little heat if the chip burns. The damage level is very high in the Nuclear Plant, High in the Basement and Low in the Toy System.
This is the reason the circuit design is different for each system.

b) In engineering, redundancy is the duplication of critical components or functions of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system, usually in the form of a backup or fail-safe.

As the Nuclear Plant needs more monitoring, the circuit is copied to provide Fail-safe system and this increases the reliability. But this sytem is not so necessary in the Toy System because the damage is very low and the cost for redundancy is high.

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