Virtual special issue: Variable amplitude loading—Fracture mechanics and cumulative damage modeling.

Almost all structures in service are exposed to loads with variable amplitudes, often termed as spectrum loading; many in-service failures occur because this type of loading is not considered properly. Combined with a numerical assessment of crack propagation lives again adopting frequency domain based procedures, a potential was indicated for more reliable usable-rest-of-life predictions under variable amplitude loading. In spite of this fact, only a minority of all publications in the fatigue domain are related to variable amplitude loading, and the majority concentrate on constant amplitude loading. [Extracted from the article]