Book excerpt: This authoritative handbook presents an extensive compilation of data covering all important fatigue situations - fatigue strength of steels and other materials, notch- , size-, and mean stress effects, influence of temperature and corrosion, influence of special surface treatments, fatigue of structural elements and welds, aircraft fatigue, multilevel loading test programs, fatigue performance prediction etc.As is well known, fatigue investigations are often extremely time-consuming. The results of the tests depend upon numerous factors, and therefore handbook data must include all of the parameters which affect reported test results. The calculation of fatigue life and strength cannot be performed without having appropriate information concerning the specific fatigue situation. Nor can test programs be properly prepared without knowing the service conditions and the results of previous tests as, otherwise, the results obtained cannot be generalized. Information on component fatigue behaviour is of importance not only to machine designers but also to production engineers in charge of component manufacture, since processing strongly affects fatigue strength, and to maintenance engineers in charge of the operation and repair of cyclically loaded machine elements.