Fatigue, an everlasting materials problem - still en vogue

In the first part, some fundamental issues that have been under discussion for a long time will be revisited, namely the effect of the cyclic slip mode on the fatigue-induced dislocation distributions, the origin and effect of cyclic slip irreversibilities and their relation to fatigue life and, finally, cyclic strain localization and fatigue crack initiation in persistent slip bands. In the second part, some topics that have recently found increasing interest will be discussed such as the cyclic deformation and fatigue behaviour of ultrafine-grained and nanostructured materials and the microstructural mechanisms that govern fatigue life of ductile and high-strength materials in the range of ultrahigh cycle fatigue. Some general conclusions will be drawn.