Dear All,

          What do you think is the difference in PhD in Europe, USA? My thesis supervisor used to say "In US it is a deep inspection of a subject, while European PhD is a grand problem solving" What is your opinion on this matter? Is there some basic difference between how a PhD is approached by students and supervisor in both these places? if indeed there is a difference, in your opinion which approach is preferable??

Atul Jain

HI,

     I was just wondering how many S-N curves would i need to  define the fatigue properties of an anisotropic material. For an isotropic material we just use 1-curve. Would that also  be enough  for an anisotropic material? We need 21 elastic constants to define anisotropic material. Would the number of SN curves be similar or be somehow related to the number or would the number of S-N curves required would be probabilistic in nature. i.e. we find the S-N curves along several planes and get a some sort of probabilistic distibution. 

Atul Jain