Abstract
This note examines briefly fatigue as a degradation mechanism and how engineers compensate for the fatigue phenomenon. Design is generally based on the stress-lifetime concept, but this concept is not very useful for lifetime assessment of operating components; thus, fatigue crack initiation and the growth of fatigue cracks become important. The numerous factors related to fatigue crack initiation and growth are briefly mentioned, and the importance of including the growth of small fatigue cracks is emphasized through the use of an illustration.
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References
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Davidson, D.L. Degradation of components and structures by fatigue. J Nondestruct Eval 15, 101–106 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00732036
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00732036