- Fatigue analysis aims to estimate the life of aircraft components under fluctuating cyclic loads.
- The stress-life (S-N) method relates the cyclic stress range to the number of cycles to failure and is commonly used. S-N curves are generated from testing and provide fatigue strength values.
- Stress concentrations around holes, notches, joints and other discontinuities significantly reduce the fatigue life of components and must be accounted for using stress concentration factors.