This book is an attempt to provide a uni?ed methodology to derive models
for fatigue life. This includes S-N, ?-N and crack propagation models.
This is not a conventional book aimed at describing the fatigue
fundamentals, but rather a book in which the basic models of the three
main fatigue approaches, the stress-based, the strain-based and the
fracture mechanics approaches, are contemplated from a novel and
integrated point of view. On the other hand, as an alternative to the
preferential attention paid to deterministic models based on the
physical, phenomenological and empirical description of fatigue, their
probabilistic nature is emphasized in this book, in which stochastic
fatigue and crack growth models are presented. This book is the result
of a long period of close collaborationbetween its two authors who,
although of di?erent backgrounds, mathematical and mechanical, both have
a strong sense of engineering with respect to the fatigue problem. When
the authors of this book ?rst approached the fatigue ?eld in 1982
(twenty six years ago), they found the following scenario: 1. Linear,
bilinear or trilinear models were frequently proposed by relevant
laboratoriesandacademiccenterstoreproducetheW] ohler?eld. Thiswas the
case of well known institutions, which justi?ed these models based on
clientrequirementsorpreferences. Thisledtotheinclusionofsuchmodels and
methods as, for example, the up-and-down, in standards and o?cial
practical directives (ASTM, Euronorm, etc.), which have proved to be
unfortunate.
