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Old 01-12-10 | 04:41 PM
  #8  
Mike Mills
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Joined: Oct 2008
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All things fatigue. Steel structures fatigue. Aluminum structures fatigue. Even graphite composite structures fatigue.

Fatigue life is usually dominated by flaws and flaw growth/propogation. Flaws are inherent in the materials and can also be induced during manufacturing and use.

Fatigue life must be dealt with statistically (Single samples are not statisically significant. It's like drawing a straight line through a single data point).

Good structural design anticipates flaws and is flaw-tolerant.

Fatigue life curves (cycles to failure as a function of strain level) are available for most common structural materials.

It is possible to estimate fatigue life using "cumulative damage" theory.
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