Originally Posted by
Rowan
... You should go into the structural metal assessment business using single photographs as your method.
BTW, you do realize that this is an actual thing, right? You obviously can't say "it'll fail with X amount force", but you can many times tell if a structural component will continue to serve it's function based on a picture.
Some questions to ask:
1) how big is the overall damaged region?
2) how overbuilt is the structure?
3) what are the forces on the structural component?
4) what direction do the forces act on the structural component and, specifically, the damaged region?
5) is the damage a stress concentrator?
6) what is the likelihood of the damage worsening over the course of normal use?
7) what is the worst case scenario; is a failure catastrophic or will the failure happen "gracefully"?
A picture won't give you numbers, but you can eyeball the situation. Obviously no decision goes forward without actually seeing the real thing.