Fatigue 2024 Special Issue

The 9th Engineering Integrity Society International Conference on Durability and Fatigue (Fatigue 2024), held on 19–21 June 2024 at Jesus College, University of Cambridge, UK, brought together leading researchers and industry practitioners from across the international fatigue and structural integrity community. The conference continues a long-standing tradition of supporting collaboration between academia and industry, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas, knowledge, recent advances and practical experiences in different aspects of fatigue, durability and structural performance.

Fatigue 2024 focused on the fundamental and applied challenges associated with the reliability and safety of engineering components operating under complex loading conditions. Central to the conference themes was the synergy between materials, manufacturing processes and structural performance, and particularly for modern engineering demands. Contributions addressed advances in material characterisation, fatigue testing, modelling and simulation, as well as emerging topics such as additive manufacturing, probabilistic approaches and data-driven methodologies. The programme featured about a hundred technical presentations across topics such as crack growth, high-cycle fatigue, imaging techniques and joint performance and reflected both the maturity of the field and the continuing evolution driven by new materials and technologies. Particular focus was placed on bridging the gap between experimental observations and predictive modelling making sure that advances in simulation are informed in reliable experimental validation and applicable to real-world service conditions. For the first time, the conference programme included a dedicated session on hydrogen, alongside contributions addressing material performance in aggressive environments such as extremely high temperatures and combustion gases, reflecting the need to understand fatigue and fracture in new and challenging conditions given the drive for higher efficiencies and the energy transition; highlighting emerging materials testing methods and novel findings.

This special session, published in collaboration with SAGE, presents a curated selection of peer-reviewed papers originating from Fatigue 2024. The included contributions illustrate the diversity and depth of current fatigue research, combining experimental, computational and applied perspectives. Several papers focus on advanced experimental approaches and material characterisation, including studies on the evolution of micro-hardness and electrical resistance under static and fatigue loading. In addition, a rapid methodology for determining S–N curves of wire + arc additively manufactured steel using infrared thermography demonstrates the potential of non-conventional techniques to accelerate fatigue assessment. A second group of contributions addresses fatigue crack growth and loading effects, presenting investigations of crack growth behaviour in high-strength steel under both constant- and variable-amplitude loading. Complementary work highlights the challenges in accurately determining effective stress intensity factor ranges for structural assessments, with important implications for reliability and failure analysis. The special session also includes studies on modelling and the role of surface integrity in fatigue performance. These include a surface-integrity-informed crystal-plasticity modelling framework for fatigue crack initiation in aerospace Ti64 alloy, linking microstructural features to predictive capability. Together, these papers reflect key themes of Fatigue 2024: the integration of experimental observations with advanced modelling, the growing importance of manufacturing-induced effects, and the need for reliable, efficient assessment methods for modern engineering materials. The collection highlights advances in fundamental understanding as well as their practical implications for the design and durability of engineering systems.

Building on the success of Fatigue 2024, preparations are underway for the next conference in the series, Fatigue 2027, which will take place on 13–15 July 2027 at Jesus College, Cambridge, UK. It will continue to provide a key forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange advances in fatigue and structural integrity, with a strong focus on linking scientific developments to industrial applications. Please check https://fatigue2027.com/.