In a general sense, the design load is the maximum amount of something a system is designed to handle or the maximum amount of something that the system can produce, which are very different meanings. For example, a crane with a design load of 20 tons is designed to be able to lift loads that weigh 20 tons or less. However, when a failure could be catastrophic, such as a crane dropping its load or collapsing entirely, a factor of safety is necessary. As a result, the crane should lift about 2 to 5 tons at the most.
In Structural design, a design load is in fact greater than the load which the system is expected to support. This is because engineers incorporate a Safety factor in their design, in order to ensure that the system will be able to support at least the expected loads (called Specified loads, despite any problems with construction, materials, etc. that go unnoticed during construction.
A heater would have a general design load, meaning the maximum amount of heat it can produce. A bridge would have a specified load, with the design load being determined by engineers and applied as a theoretical load indended to ensure the actual real-world capacity of the specified load.
Famous quotes containing the words design and/or load:
“Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance. There is as much secrecy about the cooking as if he had a design to poison you.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The only human beings I have thoroughly admired and respected in the world have been those who carried the load of the world with a smile, and who, in the face of anxieties that would have knocked me clean out, never showed a tremor. Such men and women end by owning us, soul and body, and our allegiance can never be shaken. We are only too glad to be owned. Religion is nothing but this.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)