Advances in Service Life Evaluation of Metallic and Composite Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Metallic and composite materials always play important roles in advanced techniques for maintaining desired function and freedom in structural design. Metallic and composite materials should be developed to fulfil the intended levels of safety, serviceability, and durability, as well as the ability to not only withstand the stresses provided for them but also attain sufficient service life in the global analysis of the structures. However, the degradation of metallic and composite materials, such as structural deterioration or failure induced by aging, inevitably exists when the discontinuity of rigidity and stress concentration at either the material level or structure level make it ready to initiate and propagate fatigue cracks. Facing escalating costs for newly built infrastructures and economic downturn, the ways to extend the life of the existing structures well beyond their intended design life have become an increasing concern in the engineering community. To this purpose, sustainable structures have witnessed considerable progress from external mechanical strengthening to recent surface treatment and fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) laminate alternatives. This aspect is of particular interest to researchers in civil, mechanical, and aeronautical engineering involved in metallic and composite materials related to experimental techniques, fracture mechanics, and fatigue assessment.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to gather the updated advances in service life evaluations of metallic and composite materials as key parts of making structures with desired reliability and durability. The loading scenarios include high-cycle fatigue, low-cycle fatigue, post-fatigue, etc. Contributions of primary interest in the following topics are accepted: recent developments about the experimental techniques applied to the estimation of fatigue crack growth rate and deterioration progress; the current state of knowledge relating to geometric effects (notches, fillets, etc.), environmental and physical factors on the progressive lifetime deterioration of metallic and composite materials based on theoretical and numerical approaches, and finally the methodology of the suppression of fatigue crack growth and optimization of fatigue-resistant structures. However, studies related to any other engineering materials and structures employed in fatigue approaches, fracture mechanics, and experimental techniques are also well fitted with the aim and scope of this Special Issue.

Dr. Zhi-Yu Wang
Dr. Takeshi Hanji
Guest Editors

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