Book excerpt: Fatigue of structures and materials covers a wide scope of different topics. The purpose of the present book is to explain these topics, to indicate how they can be analyzed, and how this can contribute to the designing of fatigue resistant structures and to prevent structural fatigue problems in service. Chapter 1 gives a general survey of the topic with brief comments on the signi?cance of the aspects involved. This serves as a kind of a program for the following chapters. The central issues in this book are predictions of fatigue properties and designing against fatigue. These objectives cannot be realized without a physical and mechanical understanding of all relevant conditions. In Chapter 2 the book starts with basic concepts of what happens in the material of a structure under cyclic loads. It illustrates the large number of variables which can affect fatigue properties and it provides the essential background knowledge for subsequent chapters. Different subjects are presented in the following main parts: • Basic chapters on fatigue properties and predictions (Chapters 2–8) • Load spectra and fatigue under variable-amplitude loading (Chapters 9–11) • Fatigue tests and scatter (Chapters 12 and 13) • Special fatigue conditions (Chapters 14–17) • Fatigue of joints and structures (Chapters 18–20) • Fiber-metal laminates (Chapter 21) Each chapter presents a discussion of a speci?c subject.