An Introduction to Fatigue in Metals and Composites provides a balanced treatment of the phenomenon of fatigue in metals, nonmetals and composites with polymeric, metallic and ceramic matrices. The applicability of the safe life philosophy of design is examined for each of the materials. Attention is also focused on the stable crack growth phase of fatigue and differences in the operative mechanisms for the various classes of materials are considered. The impacts of these differences on the development of damage tolerance strategies are examined. Among topics discussed are; variable amplitude...