Defects as a root cause of fatigue failure of metallic components. I: Basic aspects

According to the definition of the ASM handbook [[1], [3]], a defect is “an imperfection … that can be shown to cause failure by a quantitative analysis and that would not have occurred in the absence of the imperfection”. The topic of the present three-part review is a discussion of defects which can cause failure in cyclically loaded structures. The features discussed comprise material defects such as non-metallic inclusions, pores or...