Fatigue

This chapter presents a thoroughly description of the fatigue phenomena in engineering materials, starting with an historical synopsis of fatigue failures, the Wöler’s concept of fatigue life and a description of the S-N curves. A brief description of the fractographic characteristics of fatigue fracture surfaces and mechanisms is given. The central part of this chapter presents the mechanical methods of fatigue characterization, describes the factors that affect fatigue endurance and explain the most widely accepted methods to estimate the fatigue life of structural components, including the Haigh’s diagram, the Weibull’s statistical analysis, the Miner’s rule and the Manson and Coffin Universal Slopes Method. The fatigue crack growth behavior and the Paris’ law are described at the end of the chapter.