Fatigue and fracture result in billions of dollars of damage each year. The design of mechanical structures with improved and predictable durability cannot be achieved without a thorough understanding of the mechanisms of fatigue damage and more specifically the relationships between the microstructure of materials and their fatigue properties. This book provides an authoritative, comprehensive and unified treatment of the mechanics and micromechanisms of fatigue in metals, polymers and composites. Each chapter is devoted to one of the major classes of materials or to different types of fatigue damage, thereby providing overall coverage of the field. The book examines the various causes of fatigue including crack growth, defects, temperature, environmental, and corrosion, and will be an important and much used reference for students, practicing engineers and researchers.