A fresh perspective on the evaluation of fatigue onset in metals

Many researchers and engineers view mechanical fatigue of metals as a stagnated field, evidenced by the lack of substantially novel design approaches against fatigue in recent decades. However, our current capability to investigate, probe, and model the multiscale mechanisms of fatigue damaging processes may turn out to be pivotal for next-generation paradigms for the assessment of fatigue.

To address this need and explore potential future directions, I am happy to share a perspective paper just published by the leading journal in this field (International Journal of Fatigue). This article offers a fresh perspective on mechanical fatigue, highlighting its impact on economic, environmental, and safety concerns. It provides a comprehensive review of the fundamentals, exploring key concepts across various length scales and loading regimes. By critically examining current research trends and future directions, the article lays the groundwork for identifying remaining challenges and exploring promising avenues for future research – an extensive fraction of the paper will be focussing on this aspect. This comprehensive approach will undoubtedly emphasise the significance of mechanical fatigue and hopefully offer valuable guidance to the scientific community.

p.s. All these words and illustrations were 100% human-made! Except for a little proofreading help.

The paper is open access and can be freely downloaded by anyone at:

ScienceDirect 

ResearchGate