Received: 13 April 2020 Revised: 17 August 2020 Accepted: 20 August 2020

DOI: 10.1111/ffe.13343

INVITED CONTRIBUTION

Soft computing methods for fatigue life estimation: A

review of the current state and future trends

Can B. Kalayci1 | Sevcan Karagoz1 | Özler Karakas2

1
Department of Industrial Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, Pamukkale
Abstract
University, Denizli, Turkey Fatigue causes cracking or breakage in a material due to repeated loads; it
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, causes the material to become unusable. Therefore, knowing the fatigue life of
Faculty of Engineering, Pamukkale
materials is crucial for the implementation of designs, economy and human
University, Denizli, Turkey
life. Soft computing methodologies, a subset of artificial intelligence emerging
Correspondence to simulate human intelligence, deal with approximate models and seek
Özler Karakas, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,
solutions to complex real-life problems relying on both computational power
Pamukkale University, Kinikli, 20160 of machines and the high accuracy of the algorithms. In this study, soft
Denizli, Turkey. computing methods adapted for estimating/predicting the fatigue life of
Email: okarakas@pau.edu.tr
engineering structures and materials are investigated. For this purpose,
Funding information 95 articles published between 1995 and 2020 have been examined in detail.
Pamukkale University, Grant/Award
With this review, it is aimed to reveal the efficiency of soft computing methods
Numbers: 2020KRM005-005,
2020KRM005-065, 2018FEBE037 and contribute to their development. Recommendations have been made to
draw attention to these methodologies which are expected to be used in many
areas in the future.

KEYWORDS
fatigue life estimation, heuristic algorithms, soft computing methods

1 | INTRODUCTION a condition that affects not only economic and

Fatigue means a material weakening due to repeated
loads. Fatigue life is measured by the time or number of
cycles that the material can resist fracturing or cracking.
In other words, fatigue causes damage or changes in the
internal structure. To avoid such situations, the fatigue
life of the materials must be predicted. This prediction
plays a crucial role in reducing the risk of possible
accidents for engineering materials and reducing
manufacturing costs at the same time. Therefore, it is
crucial to estimate the fatigue life of materials and
structures. By making effective predictions, it is aimed to
predict future situations and to take precautions by using
different methods and data.
Fatigue life estimation of various materials has
attracted a lot of interest in recent years since fatigue is
technological developments but also human health. For
example, 80% of accidents in welded structures over the
past few years, causing serious damage to the economy
and seriously threatening the safety of human life, have
been caused by fatigue failures.1 For such reasons, correct
fatigue life estimation of materials is crucial to signifi-
cantly reduce unexpected risks and production costs.
Accurate estimation of fatigue life is a complex
process where different variables need to be considered.
There are many methods and techniques developed for
this in the literature. Stress-life method (S-N method),
fracture mechanics, finite element analysis (FEA),
thermography method, Palmgren-Miner method, critical
distance method, critical plane approach and continuum
damage mechanics are some of them. However, most of
these techniques are inadequate for large optimization

Fatigue Fract Eng Mater Struct. 2020;1–23. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ffe © 2020 Wiley Publishing Ltd. 1
2 KALAYCI ET AL.

problems since the solution process consumes a long
time, and/or high error rates are observed. The increase
in cost and time spent has led to the search for more
effective methods to estimate fatigue life. This study
focuses on soft computing methods for fatigue life
estimation of materials.
The researchers analysed current fatigue life
estimation methods and future research orientations for
different materials (Table 1). Cui2 examined and
discussed the parameters such as loading, material,
environment and structure which have a direct influence
on the fatigue behaviour. Santecchia et al3 reviewed
various fatigue life estimation methodologies such
as amplitude loading, Palmgren-Miner rule-based,
stochastic-based and energy-based methods. Kamal and
Rahman,4 in contrast to classical models, aimed to
identify new concepts by discussing the development of
fatigue life prediction models. Abdel Wahab5 examined
fatigue at adhesively bonded joints focusing on fatigue
strength and lifetime analysis as well as fatigue crack
initiation and propagation. Wicaksono and Chai,6
focusing on composite materials, examined studies
according to damage mechanism, failure criteria, fatigue
modelling and life prediction. Mortazavian and Fatemi7
presented a review of reinforced polymer composites that
examines several factors such as microstructural effects,
environmental effects and loading conditions affecting
cyclic deformation, damage development and fatigue
behaviour. Wagare8 investigated the effects of various
processes, material parameters and designs of
spot-welded joints on fatigue behaviour under cyclic
loading conditions.
In problem-solving, soft computing methodologies
provide effective solutions in reduced time compared
with conventional methods. Several soft computing-based
methodologies have been developed in the fatigue
literature. The main aim of this study is to examine the
studies in depth based on various soft computing
methods and applications used in the fatigue life
estimation literature of materials. This article aims to
answer the research questions given as follows:
i. Which soft computing methodologies have been
adapted to estimate the fatigue life of materials?
ii. Which materials are investigated most in fatigue life
estimation?
iii. Which parameters affect fatigue life estimation?
iv. Which performance measures and data are utilized
to test the proposed models?
v. Which software platforms are utilized to justify the
applicability of the proposed approaches?
The applied research methodology is presented in
Section 2, while Section 3 explains soft computing
methods and applications for fatigue life estimation.
Section 4 classifies the studies according to material
types, data, models, error formulations and application
software. Finally, Section 5 concludes the paper and
presents future research opportunities.
2 | A P P L I E D RE SE A R C H
M E T HO DO LO GY
Content analysis for literature review is described in
detail under the titles of material collection and
descriptive analysis.
2.1 | Material collection
A research strategy is an important and difficult task that
requires comprehensiveness and precision. In this
review, a keyword structure, given in Table 2, was

TABLE 1 Previous reviews on fatigue life estimation

Authors() Perspective/Focus
2
Cui Parameters influencing the fatigue life of metal structures according to material, structure, loading and
environment categories.
Santecchia et al3 Fatigue life prediction methodologies for metals
4
Kamal and Rahman Development of fatigue life prediction models and research of new concepts and methods
5
Abdel Wahab Fatigue in adhesively bonded joints
6
Wicaksono and Chai Fatigue life estimation of fibre-reinforced composites.
Mortazavian and Fatemi7 Fatigue behaviour of short fibre-reinforced polymer composites and factors affecting damage
development.
Wagare8 Fatigue life estimation of spot-welded joints
KALAYCI ET AL. 3

TABLE 2 The proposed keyword structure
Level Search terms
1 Fatigue life AND
2 Estimation OR prediction OR forecasting
applied to reach a wide range of research to access vari-
ous publications. In Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of
Science databases, ‘title, abstract and keywords’ were
searched and 14,012 publications were reached initially.
Among these publications, 95 publications were filtered,
selected, reviewed, classified and evaluated with a more
detailed analysis considering the scope of soft computing
methodologies. This filtering has been applied manually
since soft computing methodologies may or may not be
addressed in these publications.
2.2 | Descriptive analysis
The distribution of publications is shown in Figure 1.
A total of 95 publications (84 articles, 11 conference
proceedings) are examined. The significant increase in
the number of publications is observed in the last decade.
The publications and their distribution in the journals
are depicted in Figure 2, which shows that 22% of the
articles published in journals are published by the
‘International Journal of Fatigue’ journal. Proceedings
were published by different sources.
The rest of the article is arranged in chronological
order of articles developed over the last two decades for
fatigue life estimation.
3 | SOFT COMPUTING M ETHODS
Soft computing is an evolving collection of artificial
intelligence methodologies that aims to provide efficient
and near-optimal solutions for real-life problems and to
further explore existing solution techniques. The soft
computing concept was introduced by Zadeh9 in the
early 1990s.
Soft computing methodologies are computational
techniques that combine problem-solving technologies
such as artificial neural networks (ANNs), support vector

F I G U R E 1 Distribution of publications
[Colour figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]

F I G U R E 2 Distribution of publications based on various sources (84 articles: 1995-2020). ACM, Applied Composite Materials; AMM,
Applied Mechanics and Materials; CS, Composite Structures; ‘ESA, Expert Systems with Applications’; ‘FFEMS, Fatigue & Fracture of
Engineering Materials & Structures’; ‘IJOF: International Journal of Fatigue’; ‘MD, Materials and Design’; MSE, Materials Science and
Engineering: A; MUW, Materialwissenschaft und Werkstofftechnik; PE, Procedia Engineering
4 KALAYCI ET AL.

machines (SVMs), fuzzy logic and heuristic algorithms.
These methods, unlike traditional methods, can solve
multidimensional optimization problems in less time and
using fewer resources. In this respect, many models
including these methods have been used in estimation
studies. Figure 3 classifies soft computing methods for
fatigue life estimation in the literature, while Figure 4
depicts the utilization rate of soft computing methods for
fatigue life estimation of materials.
3.1 | Artificial neural networks
With the development of neurobiology, simulating the
neural behaviours of the human brain has enabled the
use of neurons in mathematical modelling. The ANN
approach was first inspired by the biological structure of
neurons and then an architecture was designed.10 ANN
architecture consists of three layers: input, output and
hidden layers. Each layer has units called interconnected
neurons that receive input signals from the external or
previous layer and transmit the output signals to the fol-
lowing environment. Neurons take inputs with their
weights, calculate the average weight with their total
function and use activation functions to generate out-
puts.11 ANN has different models and algorithms devel-
oped for the training of these models. The most popular
of these models is the multilayer perception feedforward
network while the backpropagation algorithm designed
to minimize the error values with different variables is a
well-known training algorithm. Table 3 categorizes vari-
ous applications of fatigue life estimation according to
the ANN architecture utilized in the studies.
ANN, with 57% applications, is the most widely used
soft computing methodology for estimating fatigue life of
materials in the last decade. ANN, especially in materials

F I G U R E 3 Soft computing
methods for fatigue life
estimation

F I G U R E 4 The utilization rate of soft computing methods for fatigue life estimation of materials. ACO, ant colony optimization; ANN,
artificial neural network; EA, evolutionary algorithm; FL, fuzzy logic; GA, genetic algorithm; GP, genetic programming; PC, polynomial
classifier; PSO, particle swarm optimization; RST, rough set theory; SA, simulated annealing; SVM, support vector machine
KALAYCI ET AL.
TABLE 3 Researches using artificial neural networks for estimating fatigue life of materials
ANN architecture/learning algorithm
Feedforward neural network
Backpropagation algorithm
Feedforward neural network and
backpropagation algorithm
Radial-based function networks
Modular networks
Other ANN types
Abbreviation: ANN, artificial neural network.
science and engineering, has been recognized with
numerous applications in different engineering fields.49
ANN has been proved to be a highly effective, powerful
and adaptive artificial intelligence calculation methodol-
ogy for modelling complex, linear and nonlinear
problems in engineering.50
Mohanty et al60 proposed a multilayer perception
feedforward network to estimate fatigue life under con-
stant amplitude loading. Fatigue crack growth tests were
performed on two aluminium alloys, whereas estimated
results provided a maximum of 4% error under the tested
loading conditions. Thus, a reasonable accuracy was
achieved compared with experimental results. It is stated
that the ANN model is an important calculation tool for
the estimation of other parameters as well as fatigue life.
El Kadi and Al-Assaf74 estimated the fatigue behav-
iour of a unidirectional glass fibre using various networks
such as modular networks, radial basis function (RBF)
networks, principal component analysis networks, self-
organizing networks and feedforward neural networks
(NNs). It was observed that modular networks generally
provided the most accurate results while feedforward
NNs gave better estimates compared with RBF networks.
Gao et al76 constructed a guide condition monitoring
system based on radial-based probabilistic NNs by ana-
lysing the factors affecting life to make maintenance
strategy, to determine the correct working conditions and
to estimate the residual life during processing. For this
5
Publications using ANN
Al Assaf and El Kadi,12 Bezazi et al,13 Salmalian et al,14 Figueira Pujol and
Andrade Pinto,15 Salmalian et al,16 Susmikanti,17 Rohman et al18 and
Kong et al19
Yang et al,1 Han,20 Aymerich and Serra,21 Venkatesh and Rack,22 Pleune
and Chopra,23 Sohn and Bae,24 Genel,25 Junior et al,26 Marquardt and
Zenner,27 Vassilopoulos et al,28 Mathur et al,29 Cai et al,30 Liao et al,31
Al-Assadi et al,32 Kumar et al,33 Ma et al,34 Zhaohua,35 Xu et al,36
Barsoum et al,37 Zhang and Lin,38 Yang et al,39 Mohanty et al,40
Uygur et al,41 Xiang et al,42 Vadood et al,43 Mishra et al,44 Mohanty,45
Liu et al,46 Martinez and Ponce47 and Barbosa et al48
Lotfi and Beiss,49 Razzaq et al,50 Artymiak et al,51 Srinivasan et al,52
Al-Assaf and El Kadi,53 Park and Kang,54 Vassilopoulos et al,55
Majidian and Saidi,56 Mathew et al,57 Mohanty et al,58 Xiao et al,59
Mohanty et al,60 Al-Assadi et al,61 El Kadi,62 Karakas,63 Peng et al,64
Abdalla and Hawileh,65 Karakas and Tomasella,66 Jin et al,67 Tapkin,68
Moghaddam et al,69 Durodola et al,70 Durodola et al,71 Yan et al72 and
Yang et al73
El Kadi and Al-Assaf,74 Abdalla and Hawileh75 and Gao et al76
El Kadi and Al-Assaf74 and El Kadi and Al-Assaf77
Lee et al,78 Tian,79 Li et al,80 Song et al81 and Ahmad et al82
purpose, a genetic algorithm (GA) was successfully used
to optimize the parameters of this NN resulting in cost
savings with the proposed system.
Lee et al78 applied an ANN methodology to estimate
the fatigue life of the laminates under different stress
rates and resulted in a successful model of constant-stress
fatigue behaviour for five carbon fibre-reinforced plastics
and a glass-reinforced plastic laminate. In the study, it
has been proposed to research it to be expanded to
include different composite materials.
Tian79 proposed an ANN model for the remaining
useful life prediction of various equipment by taking age
and multiple condition measurement values as input and
percentage of life as output. In comparison with Wu et al
(2007), the results confirm the applicability of the models
in condition-based maintenance optimization with
accurate estimates. Equipment fatigue life estimation was
emphasized to be important to reduce maintenance costs
and increase reliability.
Li et al,80 using the creep-fatigue test data for P91 steel,
proposed a fatigue life prediction model with Elman NN
outperforming a SVM model where the load keeping time
was used as the model input while the fatigue life was the
output. In the study, it was mentioned that prediction
accuracy can be increased by using more test samples and
reducing uncertain factors during the experiment.
Ahmad et al82 proposed an accelerated life testing
method and ANN with Bayesian and Levenberg-
6 KALAYCI ET AL.

Marquardt (LM) training algorithms that confirmed the is to evolve into new solutions from a set of solutions
effective lifetime prediction of different materials using crossover and/or mutation strategies throughout
welded joints. generations/iterations started with an initial population
of solutions.

3.2 | Heuristic algorithms
In the attempt of finding (near) optimal solutions for
numerous complex problems that arise in practice,
various methodologies have been developed in the
literature. Among those approaches, heuristic algorithms
come into prominence, where processing speed is as
important as the quality of the solution obtained.83
‘Heuristic’ is a word of Greek origin meaning finding and
exploring, while an algorithm is a step-by-step process for
solving a problem. Difficulty in finding exact solutions to
complex optimization problems and the need for fast
response to the situations increased the use of heuristic
algorithms in the last two decades. As a result, a large
catalogue of heuristic techniques inspired by nature,
society, physics, and so forth, has emerged.
Since the determination of fatigue behaviour of the
materials is time-consuming and costly, to avoid a vast
number of experiments, there is a need to use systematic
methodologies that can quickly assess fatigue behaviour
and provide an accurate estimation. Estimates using
these methods will not only save time but also minimize
the use of resources. Heuristic algorithms can be
classified into two categories: population-based and
single-solution-based solution approaches.
3.2.1 | Population-based algorithms
In the subset of nature-based optimization algorithms,
population-based algorithms move with a set of solutions
in the solution space in each iteration.84 Thus, on the
contrary of single-solution-based algorithms, there is a
natural advantage of diversification in population-based
algorithms which can be classified into two groups: evolu-
tionary algorithms (EAs) and swarm-based algorithms.85
Evolutionary algorithms
EAs are search methodologies that imitate the process
of biological evolution in nature. The basic idea of EA
Genetic algorithms. GAs, the most well-known EA with
59% applications in fatigue life estimation, are
optimization algorithms that are particularly useful to
find (near) optimal solutions for difficult problems.10
With Darwin's theory of evolution, GAs are inspired by
the survival principle of the adaptable.86
In GA,87 each solution is represented by encoded
chromosomes, that is, possible solutions to the problem.
First, an initial population of individuals (chromosomes)
is generated, then the fitness of each chromosome is
evaluated. To form new chromosomes, the chromosome
pairs are exchanged with genetic operator strategies such
as crossover and mutation with the hope of finding better
solutions throughout generations. The application of
these genetic operators is repeated until the stopping
criteria are reached.88 Table 4 presents the publications
utilized GA strategies in fatigue life estimation.
Genetic rogramming. Genetic programming (GP), a
sub-branch of GA, is a systematic evolutionary approach
developed by John Koza97 in 1992. While a GA often
operates on encoded strings of numbers, a GP must
operate on software with a set of elementary instructions
and a subset of programming languages in the endowed
language. It is then subjected to the process of forming
an initial population and using genetic operators
(selection, crossover, mutation), similar to the procedure
of GA.98 GP enables the optimization of much more
complex problems compared with GA and can,
therefore, be applied to various problems.99 Although GP
applications on fatigue life estimation of materials are
limited, successful results have been obtained from
researches using GP.
Vassilopoulos et al100 modelled and compared the
fatigue behaviour of four different composite materials
using GP, linear regression and Whitney's method. The
fatigue behaviour was successfully modelled by GP and,
if sufficiently trained, better estimates could be generated
than other conventional methods. Also, the pros of GP
are mentioned. For example, it can be used as a

TABLE 4 Genetic algorithms adapted for estimating fatigue life of materials

Article/conference paper Publications using genetic algorithms

Article Ma et al,34 Zhang and Lin,38 Vadood et al,43 Liu et al,46 Lotfi and Beiss,49 Majidian and Saidi,56
Gao et al,76 Canyurt,89 Karakas et al,90 Chen et al,91 Kamal et al,92 Zhang et al,93 Agius et al94
and Deveci and Artem95
Conference paper Susmikanti,17 Rohman et al,18 Cai et al,30 Zhaohua,35 Tian79 and Xu and Cui96
KALAYCI ET AL.
prediction method for different purposes, such as the
creation of constant life diagrams.
Mohanty et al101 estimated the fatigue crack growth
rate of aluminium alloys (2024-T3) using GP and ANN,
whereas GP provided a higher precision than ANN. In
the study, it has been proposed to conduct research based
on intelligent approaches to estimate fatigue life under
different conditions.
Using GP, Azarhoosh et al102 accurately estimated the
fatigue life of hot-mix asphalt (HMA) samples testing on
different precipitated calcium carbonate contents under
various temperatures and different stress levels. Also, it
was observed from the results that the stiffness module
had a more important effect on fatigue life than the
initial tensile strain.
Swarm-based algorithms
Swarm-based methodologies103 have been designed by
inspiring the social behaviours of ants, bees104–107 or
birds in their natural lives. They are algorithms based on
swarm intelligence and collaboration. Swarm intelligence
is the clever behaviour of individuals interacting with
each other. The intelligent behaviours exhibited in this
way by individuals within the swarm have inspired many
solutions. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is one of
the most recognized and widely used methods among
swarm-based algorithms.
PSO algorithm. One of the swarm-based intelligence
algorithms, the PSO algorithm was firstly developed by
Eberhart and Kennedy108 in 1995 to find an optimal solu-
tion inspired by the social behaviour of the bird flocks.
Similar to the GA, PSO109 is a population-based
optimization algorithm in which each individual or
solution is named as a particle that has a certain velocity
and position, and the population of the particles is
termed as a swarm. The algorithm starts with a random
population and continues optimal searches with updates.
The best solution is tried to be reached with the updates
by storing the best position obtained by the particle as
well as all population.110 To obtain better solutions, the
current generation is updated by replacing the worst
particle in the current generation with the best particle in
the last one as it is also applied in the GA. However,
unlike GA, genetic functions such as mutation and cross-
over do not exist in the PSO algorithm.
In addition to the widespread usage of the PSO
algorithm in optimization, science and engineering
problems, it is the most implemented algorithm after GA
in estimating the fatigue life of materials.
Song et al81 proposed a reliability-based surrogate
model combining PSO and general regression NN to
enhance the computational efficiency of reliability-based
7
fatigue life estimation for complex structures considering
the variation of time. The proposed model is compared
with various models on fatigue life estimation of an
aircraft turbine blisk. It is stated that this study supports
the mechanical reliability theory and contributes to
different applications in design optimization.
Xu and Cui,96 based on metal magnetic memory
signals, proposed a SVM model to estimate the fatigue
life of bolts measured at different loading cycles and to
perform fatigue tests; the signals of the bolts were
measured by using various parameters were as input.
Grid search, PSO and GA methodologies are adopted to
optimize parameters of the proposed model, whereas the
GA performed to be the most effective.
Ertas111 optimized the fatigue life estimation model
developed by Fawaz and Ellyin by utilizing the PSO algo-
rithm to find the maximum fatigue life of composite
materials considering in-plane loads and optimum
designs of composite laminates. Fibre orientation angles
determined during the design process were chosen as
design variables. Changes in fatigue life were observed by
increasing the stress level and with a different fibre angle
number.
Ant colony optimization algorithm. Inspired by the food
search strategies of ants, the ant colony optimization
(ACO) algorithm is developed as a metaheuristic solution
approach in the early 1990s by Dorigo et al.112
To find the shortest distance between food sources
and the nests, ants first randomly search for areas near
their nests. When the ant finds the location of food, it
carries the food back to its nest, evaluating it in terms
of quality and quantity. During this trip between food
source and nest, ants leave secretion called pheromone
on the route. Leaving these pheromone traces on the
road, it helps other ants to reach the location of food.
This indirect communication between ants helps ants
find the shortest distance between the food sources
and the nest. The ant colony algorithm113 has a repeti-
tive structure by updating pheromone traces. In the
working process of the algorithm, the pheromone
traces are updated every iteration until the stop crite-
rion is reached or until the optimal solution is
reached.
After successfully applying on the problems such as
travelling salesman, job-shop scheduling and quadratic
assignment problems, an ant colony algorithm is used by
many researchers on various problem types.114 However,
it has been the least utilized solution technic among soft
computing algorithms for fatigue life prediction. Yang
et al39 used an ant colony algorithm in their hybrid study
to estimate the fatigue life of aluminium alloy-welded
joints and obtained satisfactory results from this study.
8 KALAYCI ET AL.
3.2.2 | Single-solution-based algorithms
Unlike population-based solution algorithms, single-solu-
tion-based algorithms, as its name suggests, uses and
improves a single solution throughout the optimization
process. In each iteration, they generate a single solution
instead of a population, therefore results can be obtained
very quickly. In the fatigue life estimation problems, one
of the single-solution-based algorithms, simulated
annealing (SA) algorithm, is used.
SA algorithm. SA developed by Kirkpatrick et al115 in
1983 is a single-solution metaheuristic algorithm that
tries to simulate the physical annealing process of solids
in which a solid can be heated and then cooled slowly to
crystallization to find solutions to optimization problems.
First, a random initial solution is generated and sys-
tematically improved until a stopping condition is met.
The algorithm starts with a high-temperature value
which is an important parameter of SA.116 Next, new
solutions are produced within the neighbourhood of the
current solution. The new solutions are evaluated
according to the specified criteria or the specified proba-
bility function. After each calculation step, the tempera-
ture decreases periodically. The algorithm terminated
when the stopping criterion is reached. Otherwise,
returning to the initial temperature determination step,
the next steps are repeated until a near-optimal solution
is reached.115
The SA algorithm has advantages over other meta-
heuristic algorithms in terms of ease of implementation.
It has been used successfully in solving multiobjective
optimization problems. Fatigue life estimation researches
have works, although limited.
Ertas and Sonmez117 proposed a fatigue life estima-
tion model combining the model presented by Fawaz and
Ellyin and direct simulation annealing algorithm which
is an extension of SA to find the maximum fatigue life
and optimum design for the composite laminates. In the
proposed model, the different fibre orientation angles
included in each laminate were accepted as design vari-
ables and determined during the design process. Fatigue
life is sensitive to the stress level. So, it is recommended
to be more careful against fatigue failure during the
design phase.
Ertas and Sonmez118 proposed a methodology to
estimate the fatigue life of composite materials and to
find the optimum design of composite laminates.
Fawaz and Ellyin models are used to estimate the
fatigue life of composite laminates, and an SA algo-
rithm was used in the optimization procedure. As the
stress level is increased, dramatic changes in fatigue
life were observed.
Among single-solution-based algorithms, tabu
search119 and variable neighbourhood search optimiza-
tion algorithms120,121 still remain to be explored for
fatigue life estimation.
3.3 | Support vector machines
SVM, developed by Cortes and Vapnik,122 is a classifica-
tion algorithm based on machine learning technique
which utilizes statistical learning theory. Better classifica-
tion accuracy and generalization ability than conven-
tional methods make SVMs a better alternative than
other methods. The aim of the classification using SVMs
is to define a hyperplane that best separates the two clas-
ses. Using the training data sets, the optimal hyperplane
is determined, and the generalization ability is confirmed
by these datasets.123
Successful adaptations of SVMs have been achieved
in many areas such as pattern recognition, regression and
artificial intelligence. Mostly, SVMs were used in fatigue
life estimation studies and compared with other soft com-
puting methods.
Liu et al46 developed a prediction model using SVM
to estimate the fatigue life of rubber materials used for
vibration isolation. To optimize parameters of the devel-
oped SVM, a modified gravity search algorithm (MGSA)
has been used. GA, PSO, SA and MGSA were compared
to investigate the pre-eminence and operational effi-
ciency of the parameter optimization technique. As a
result of the comprehensive performance analysis of the
algorithms, MGSA was found to be superior to PSO and
SA, which gave similar results with the GA. To confirm
the pre-eminence of the SVM model, a backpropagation
neural network (BPNN) model was used. When the
MGSA-optimized SVM model was compared with the
BPNN model, the predictive accuracy of the SVM was
found to be higher. Considering other factors affecting
the fatigue life of rubber (temperature, composition, etc.),
new research has been proposed.
Moghaddam et al69 applied SVM and firefly algorithm
(SVM-FFA) to estimate the fatigue life of polyethylene
terephthalate (PET)–modified asphalt mixture where
stress levels, environmental temperature and PET per-
centages were taken as input parameters. A comparison
of the estimation performance of the proposed approach
and those who applied SVM, ANN and GP showed that
SVM-FFA provides more acceptable and accurate results.
Zhang et al93 proposed the support vector regression
(SVR) estimation model based on GA to optimize SVM
parameters with GA. For estimation, the P91 steel was
used as base metal and welding consumable. Material
samples were taken from the literature. In addition to
KALAYCI ET AL.
GA, a model for estimation was formed with the PSO
algorithm. MSE and R2 (coefficient of determination)
were selected as evaluation indicators of the models.
For the base metal and welding consumables, MSE and
R2 values of the SVR, GA-SVR and PSO-SVR models
were compared. The GA-SVR model provided the
highest sensitivity and best results in comparing predic-
tions of the three models. This was followed by the
PSO-SVR model and the SVR model. Therefore, it has
been seen that GA-SVR can effectively estimate the
fatigue life of the materials. At the end of the study,
the effect of parameters for achieving more reliable
solutions is mentioned as a direction for future research
to be examined.
3.4 | Polynomial classifiers
As a solution to a problem put forward in the last few
years, many nonlinear classification methods have been
applied including statistical classifiers. Polynomial classi-
fiers (PCs) are one of these methods. PC is the rec-
ommended learning algorithm for recognition with
classification, regression and generalization capabilities.
PCs require less calculation and have been used success-
fully for several applications of pattern recognition and
signal detection problems, including speech and speaker
recognition.124
Since ANN needs to be tuned to determine parame-
ters that require running the process several times, Al-
Assaf and El Kadi53 developed a new concept of PC to
estimate the fatigue life of composite materials. They
have compared the results of the proposed concept with
feedforward and recurrent NNs. Even if a few experimen-
tal data are used to train the PC and ANN, it is stated that
the estimates obtained are comparable with other avail-
able fatigue life estimation methods. The results showed
that the estimates obtained using PC were better than
those obtained using ANN.
El Kadi62 used ANN and PC methods to estimate
fatigue behaviour of fibre-reinforced composite materials.
After, fatigue life estimates obtained using these methods
were compared. Although an ANN architecture does not
consistently provide the optimal estimates, the ANN
architecture used has been seen to affect the estimate.
When the root-mean-square error (RMSE) values were
compared, the ANN provided better estimates than
the PC.
El Kadi and Al-Assaf,77 applied modular NN and PC
for the fatigue life estimate of fibre-reinforced composite
materials. All input and output parameters are normal-
ized. Neuro-solution software was used to train and test
the NN. The RMSE for the NN was calculated as 36.2%.
9
MATLAB software was used for PC. Estimates obtained
using the first-order PC were compared with experimen-
tal data, and an RMSE of 119% was obtained with a high
error rate. To remedy this problem, a second-order PC
was used. In this case, a higher error value has been
reached. A few higher-order terms were tried to be added
to the first-order PC and resulting in an RMSE of 38.7%.
El-Kadi et al125 used the PC method to estimate the
fatigue life of different fibre-reinforced composite mate-
rials. In this study, different composite materials with
various fibre orientation angles were considered. Suffi-
cient fatigue life estimates were obtained when higher-
order terms were added to the classifier using PC to
improve the solution. Estimates using PC were compared
with experimental results, and accurate estimation
results were obtained.
3.5 | Rough set theory
Rough set theory (RST) which is commonly used as a
data processing technique in the fields of artificial intelli-
gence, data mining, decision analysis, machine learning
and pattern recognition is developed by Pawlak126 in
1982 to overcome the uncertainty emerging in case of
imprecise, incomplete and noisy data. It provides a sys-
tem through which intelligibility-based methodologies
can be modelled and explained and provides the basis for
data mining and discovery of the knowledge. Further-
more, it is a simple structured and easily applicable
method that analyses data relationships, determines the
importance of qualifications and includes feature reduc-
tion. With feature reduction, a minimum feature subset
is obtained by deleting the noisy or irrelevant features
while maintaining classification accuracy.127
Yang et al1 and Yang et al39 applied data prepro-
cessing using RST to compensate for missing data
between data sets, delete invalid data and protect data
effectively. Data preprocessing is the preprocessing of
missing, inconsistent and dirty data between fatigue data
to estimate fatigue life. Thus, more consistent and accu-
rate results can be achieved with RST.
Artificial intelligence calculation techniques are more
useful when there is no exact mathematical knowledge.
One of these techniques, fuzzy logic, is an interface
between reasoning and logic. Unlike traditional com-
puter use, these techniques involve partial realism,
uncertainty and approximate reasoning. Compared with
other artificial intelligence techniques, it does not need a
lot of software and hardware resources.128
Fuzzy logic one of the artificial intelligence comput-
ing techniques, introduced by Lotfi Zadeh9 in 1965.
Fuzzy logic has been applied since the 1970s in different
10
areas such as artificial intelligence and control systems.
However, studies on fatigue life estimation of materials
are limited.
Majidian and Saidi56 compared the fatigue life estima-
tion performance of ANN and fuzzy logic by performing
an experimental test considering the dependence on the
wall thickness of reheater tubes of boiler and time. Li129
examined the fuzzy method and a traditional method for
fatigue analysis of the wind turbine. This fuzzy method
produced more accurate results.
3.6 | Hybrid methodologies
Hybrid methods are formed by combining two or more
methods to achieve better results by using the developer
aspects or to reduce the error rate. In the literature,
hybrid methods combining heuristic algorithms and
ANN are used to estimate the fatigue life of various mate-
rials. However, the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference sys-
tem (ANFIS) methodology has been used as an
integrated system that takes advantage of the ANN and
fuzzy inference system (FIS).
Table 5 shows the publications that are using the
hybrid method and the methods used in the hybrid
study.
Yang et al1 proposed a hybrid solution approach
adapting the RST, ANN and PSO algorithms to estimate
the fatigue life of titanium alloy-welded components. To
form the fatigue life prediction model, first, the main fac-
tors affecting the fatigue life of welded components and
reducing unnecessary data were determined by using the
advantages of RST. Subsequently, the minimum features
subset was used as input to the NN while the parameters
of ANN were optimized by using the PSO algorithm.
T A B L E 5 Hybrid techniques used for estimating fatigue life of
materials in literature
Publication Hybrid method
1 mum feature was obtained. Then, the minimum reduced
Yang et al PSO-BP
Kong et al19 HMLP ANN
34
Ma et al GA-ANN
39
Yang et al RST-ACO-BPNN
45
Mohanty ANFIS
Deveci and Artem95 GA-GPSA
Abbreviations: ACO, ant colony optimization; ANFIS, adaptive
neuro-fuzzy inference system; ANN, artificial neural network; BP,
backpropagation; BPNN, backpropagation neural network; GA,
genetic algorithm; GPSA, generalized pattern search algorithm;
HMLP, hybrid multilayer perceptron; PSO, particle swarm optimi-
zation; RST, rough set theory.
KALAYCI ET AL.
When the sample data and the data obtained from the
prediction model were compared, it was concluded that
the proposed fatigue life prediction model provides
higher accuracy fatigue life values. The predictive efficacy
of PSO-BP was found to be better than BP.
To estimate the fatigue life of automotive coil springs
affected by vehicle vertical vibrations and natural fre-
quencies of the vehicle suspension system, Kong et al19
developed a hybrid multilayer perceptron ANN (HMLP-
ANN) trained by the LM algorithm. The proposed Mor-
row and Smith-Watson-Topper HMLP models success-
fully estimated the fatigue life of automotive coil springs
with a low MSE value of 0.0117 and 0.0824, respectively.
It is believed that the proposed models would signifi-
cantly simplify the design and development of systems in
the automotive industry, thanks to both a reduction in
the number of tests and prototype building for designers.
Ma et al34 proposed a method for estimating the
fatigue life of metal weld joints, which is obtained by
optimizing the ANN by GA, which is described as a com-
bined genetic neural network (GA-ANN). For 15 test
data, actual measurement values, ANN estimation values
and GA-ANN estimation values were compared. While
the error value obtained using ANN was 5.6%, this rate
was calculated as 1.2% with GA-ANN. Compared with
ANN, the combined genetic NN results were better and
effectively reduced predictive errors. The method, by ana-
lysing the relationship between fatigue life with various
factors affecting fatigue life of metal weld joints, showed
high predictive accuracy. In future research, a different
mathematical model and heuristic algorithm are consid-
ered for the estimation of fatigue life. Also, the correla-
tion between factors affecting the fatigue life of welded
joints should be examined, and different methods should
be proposed to improve.
Yang et al39 used a new estimation method based on
RST, ACO algorithm and BPNN to estimate fatigue
behaviour of aluminium alloy-welded joints. In the pro-
posed method, first, by using the ability of RST to reduce
unnecessary data on fatigue data, a subset with the mini-
subset was entered into the NN model to form the predic-
tion model with continuous training and adjustment. The
ACO algorithm was used to optimize the weights of
BPNN. To develop the validity of the RST-ACO-BPNN
prediction model, it has been applied to aluminium alloy-
welded joints. Results showed that the developed method
can effectively predict the fatigue behaviour of alumin-
ium alloy-welded joints. Furthermore, when the
predicted results of the RST-ACO-BPNN model and the
RST-BPNN model were compared, the predictive effi-
ciency of the RST-ACO-BPNN method was seen to be
better than the RST-BPNN method.
KALAYCI ET AL.
Mohanty45 successfully applied the ANFIS method to
estimate the fatigue life of an aluminium alloy (AA 6061)
under the influence of the load ratio by firstly calculating
the crack growth rate.
Deveci and Artem95 developed a prediction model, a
hybrid algorithm combining GA and generalized pattern
search algorithm (GPSA), to find an optimum design of
the composite laminates composed of different fibre-
stacking sequence according to different design cases.
The model can accurately estimate the fatigue behaviour
of composite laminates (unidirectional and mul-
tidirectional) with different configurations and materials.
The research focused on the importance of design optimi-
zation application of composites for the estimation of
fatigue life.
4 | CATEGORY S ELECTION
The classification applied in this review is based on how
a fatigue life estimation problem is solved considering the
main elements involved in the solution process. The cate-
gories are created according to the following criteria:
materials, data, solution techniques, inputs for proposed
models, software used and performance measures to esti-
mate the fatigue life. The main categories used to classify
the publications are shown in Figure 5.
4.1 | Material types
Many different materials have been used for fatigue life
estimation in the literature. Components, plastics, steel,
rubber materials, spot-welded joints, adhesively bonded
joints, asphalt mixtures, guides, bearings and bolts are
F I G U R E 5 Classification and applications
on fatigue life estimation problems
11
some of these materials. As shown in Table 6, these types
of materials have been brought together under the rele-
vant headings: composite materials, alloys, metals and
welded structures.
As seen in Figure 6, fatigue life estimation is made by
using the most composite materials and alloys in the lit-
erature. Composite materials and alloys were followed by
metals and welded joints, respectively.
4.2 | Data
Table 7 presents the publications using benchmarking
datasets as well as case study instances used to test the
performance of the proposed algorithms developed for
fatigue life estimation.
4.3 | Function models
The accuracy of the estimation is highly related to
the prediction model as well as the characteristics of
the data. It is important to select the function model
that gives the closest results to the experimental
results. Therefore, the function to be used should give
the most accurate estimation values with minimum
error. Function models and publications used in
fatigue life prediction literature are described in
Table 8.
4.3.1 | Activation functions
ANN consists of several interconnected nodes called neu-
rons which calculate by using an activation function
12 KALAYCI ET AL.

TABLE 6 Materials used in fatigue life estimation literature

Materials Publications
Composite Al Assaf and El Kadi,12 Bezazi et al,13 Salmalian et al,14 Salmalian et al,16 Rohman et al,18 Aymerich and Serra,21
Junior et al,26 Vassilopoulos et al,28 Mathur et al,29 Cai et al,30 Liao et al,31 Al-Assadi et al,32 Kumar et al,33 Uygur et
al,41 Xiang et al,42 Vadood et al,43 Al-Assaf, and El Kadi,53 Vassilopoulos et al,55 Xiao et al,59 Al-Assadi et al,61 El
Kadi,62 Tapkin,68 Moghaddam et al,69 Yan et al,72 El Kadi and Al-Assaf,74 El Kadi and Al-Assaf,77 Lee et al,78 Deveci
and Artem,95 Vassilopoulos et al,100 Azarhoosh et al,102 Ertas,111 Ertas and Sonmez,117 Ertas and Sonmez,118 El Kadi
et al,125 Deveci and Artem130 and Sai et al131
Alloys Figueira Pujol and Andrade Pinto,15 Susmikanti,17 Venkatesh and Rack,22 Pleune and Chopra,23 Sohn and Bae,24
Genel,25 Marquardt and Zenner,27 Zhaohua,35 Xu et al,36 Barsoum et al,37 Zhang and Lin,38 Mohanty et al,40 Mishra
et al,44 Mohanty,45 Martinez and Ponce,47 Barbosa et al,48 Lotfi and Beiss,49 Razzaq et al,50 Artymiak et al,51
Srinivasan et al,52 Park and Kang,54 Mathew et al,57 Mohanty et al,58 Mohanty et al,60 Abdalla and Hawileh,65 Jin et
al,67 Durodola et al,71 Abdalla and Hawileh,75 Tian,79 Li et al,80 Ahmad et al,82 Karakas et al,90 Kamal et al,92 Zhang
et al,93 Liu et al,132 Kim et al133 and Gulgec et al134
Metals Kong et al,19 Marquardt and Zenner,27 Majidian and Saidi,56 Karakas,63 Gao et al,76 Song et al,81 Canyurt,89 Chen et
al,91 Xu and Cui96 and Li129
Welded Yang et al,1 Han,20 Ma et al,34 Yang et al,39 Karakas and Tomasella66 and Zou et al127
structures

 
considering the input, predetermined weights and bias X
m x −cij 2
f ðx Þ = expð − , ð3Þ
added.55 j=1
σ2
The chosen activation function significantly affects
the performance of the network. Some of the transfer
functions commonly used in ANN literature are linear where ‘cij’ is the jth hidden central vector
transfer functions, logistic sigmoid transfer functions and corresponding to an ith node of second hidden layer in
hyperbolic tangent transfer functions. the first hidden layer, ‘σ’ is the control parameter of func-
Logistic sigmoid transfer function: The logistic sigmoid tion and ‘m’ is the number of hidden central vector for
transfer function is a commonly used activation function. the class in the first hidden layer.
The sigmoid transfer function of the ANN model is given
by Equation 1.
4.3.2 | Polynomial models
1
f ðx Þ = : ð1Þ
1 + e−x Another group of models used for fatigue life estimation
is polynomial models. We can include linear, quadratic,
Hyperbolic tangent sigmoid transfer function (tansig): cubic and exponential functions in this group.
The tansig function is defined by Equation 2 as follows: Quadratic model: Canyurt89 used cubic and quadratic
prediction models for fatigue strength estimation of adhe-
ex −ⅇ − x sively bonded tubular joint components.
f ðx Þ =: ð2Þ
ex + ⅇ − x For example, a quadratic function consisting of
RBF: The RBF function is defined by Equation 3 as only two variables can be defined by Equation 4 as
follows: follows:

f ðx Þ = w0 + w1 x i + w2 x j + w3 x i x j + w4 x 2i + w5 x 2j , ð4Þ

where ‘w’ represents the corresponding weighting fac-

tors and ‘xiand xj’ are the input values.
Qubic model: Canyurt89 concluded that the cubic form
was found to be better than the quadratic form. For
example, a cubic function consisting of only two variables
FIGURE 6 Most-used materials for fatigue life estimation can be defined by Equation 5 as follows:
KALAYCI ET AL. 13

TABLE 7 Datasets used in fatigue life estimation literature

Datasets Publications
Benchmarking Marquardt and Zenner,27 Mathur et al,29 Liao et al,31 Artymiak et al51 and Kim et al133
Case study Yang et al,1 Al Assaf and El Kadi,12 Bezazi et al,13 Salmalian et al,14 Figueira Pujol and Andrade Pinto,15 Salmalian et
al,16 Rohman et al,18 Kong et al,19 Han,20 Aymerich and Serra,21 Venkatesh and Rack,22 Pleune and Chopra,23 Sohn
and Bae,24 Genel,25 Junior et al,26 Vassilopoulos et al,28 Cai et al,30 Al-Assadi et al,32 Kumar et al,33 Ma et al,34
Zhaohua,35 Xu et al,36 Barsoum et al,37 Zhang and Lin,38 Mohanty et al,40 Uygur et al,41 Xiang et al,42 Vadood et
al,43 Mishra et al,44 Mohanty,45 Liu et al,46 Martinez and Ponce,47 Barbosa et al,48 Lotfi and Beiss,49 Razzaq et al,50
Srinivasan et al,52 Al-Assaf and El Kadi,53 Park and Kang,54 Vassilopoulos et al,55 Majidian and Saidi,56 Mathew et
al,57 Mohanty et al,58 Xiao et al,59 Mohanty et al,60 Al-Assadi et al,61 Karakas,63 Peng et al,64 Abdalla and Hawileh65
Karakas and Tomasella,66 Jin et al,67 Tapkin,68 Moghaddam et al,69 Durodola et al,70 Durodola et al,71 Yan et al,72
Yang et al,73 El Kadi and Al-Assaf,74 Abdalla and Hawileh,75 Gao et al,76 El Kadi and Al-Assaf,77 Lee et al,78 Tian,79
Li et al,80 Song et al,81 Ahmad et al,82 Canyurt,89 Karakas et al,90 Chen et al,91 Kamal et al,92 Zhang et al,93 Agius et
al,94 Deveci and Artem,95 Xu and Cui,96 Vassilopoulos et al,100 Azarhoosh et al,102 Ertas,111 Ertas and Sonmez,117
Ertas and Sonmez,118 El Kadi et al,125 Zou et al,127 Li,129 Deveci and Artem,130 Sai et al,131 Gulgec et al134 and Basan
et al135

f ðx Þ = w0 + w1 xi + w2 xj + w3 xi xj + w4 xi2 ð5Þ
Basan et al135 used the Coffin-Manson-Basquin equa-
+ w5 xj2 + + w6 xi2 xj + w7 xj2 xi + w8 xi3 + w9 xj3 , tion for the strain-life approach of metallic materials. The
Coffin-Manson-Basquin function by Basan et al135 is as
where ‘w’ repsesents the corresponding weighting fac- given in Equation 7 as follows:
tors and ‘xi and xj’ are input values.
0
Exponential model: Mohanty et al58 compared the Δε σ f  b  c
= 2N f + ε0f 2N f , ð7Þ
ANN results and experimental results with an exponen- 2 E
tial model proposed by the authors for fatigue life estima-
tion. As a result of the comparison, it was found that the where ‘Δε’ represents total strain range, ‘σ 0f ’ is the
ANN results are compatible with the results of the experi- fatigue strength coefficient, ‘E’ is Young's modulus, ‘Nf’ is
mental data and exponential model. the number of cycles, ‘b’ is the fatigue strength exponent,
Mohanty et al40 and Mohanty45 estimated the fatigue ‘ε0f ’ is the fatigue ductility coefficient and ‘c’ is the fatigue
life of aluminium alloys using the ANFIS soft computing ductility exponent.
technique and the exponential model proposed by the Smith-Watson-Topper: Kong et al19 used Smith-Wat-
authors. The exponential model given by Mohanty et al40 son-Topper, Coffin-Manson and Morrow equations for
is as in Equation 6 as follows: fatigue life estimation. The Smith-Watson-Topper
function by Kong et al19 is as given in Equation 8 as
 
ln
aj follows:
ai
mij =  , ð6Þ
N j −N i  2  b  b + c
σ max εa E = σ 0f 2Nf + σ 0f ε0f E 2Nf , ð8Þ

where ‘mij’ is the growth rate, ‘aj’ and ‘ai’ are the
crack lengths and ‘Nj’ and ‘Ni’ are the number of cycles
in the ith and jth step, respectively.
4.3.3 | Conventional models
Coffin-Manson-Basquin: Zhang and Lin38 compared the
estimated result with GA-BP with the result tested and
the result calculated by the Coffin-Manson method.
Abdalla and Hawileh75 used the Coffin-Manson and
Koh-Stephens equations to estimate the low-cycle fatigue
life of steel reinforcing bars.
where ‘σ max’ represents the maximum stress, ‘εa’ is
the total strain amplitude, ‘E’ is the elastic module, ‘σ 0f ’ is
the fatigue strength coefficient, ‘Nf’ is the number of
cycles, ‘b’ is the fatigue strength exponent, ‘ε0f ’ is the
fatigue ductility coefficient and ‘c’ is the fatigue ductility
exponent.
Fawaz-Ellyin model: Ertas,111 and Ertas and
Sonmez117,118 used the Fawaz-Ellyin model to achieve
maximum fatigue life and to determine the optimum
composite laminates designs. In this model, a semilog lin-
ear equation to explain the relationship between a maxi-
mum stress and the number of fatigue failure cycles can
14 KALAYCI ET AL.

TABLE 8 Function models used in fatigue life estimation literature

Functional Publications
Activation function Sigmoid Figueira Pujol and Andrade Pinto,15
Susmikanti,17 Rohman et al,18 Han,20
Aymerich and Serra,21 Sohn and
Bae,24 Genel,25 Junior et al,26
Vassilopoulos et al,28 Liao et al,31
Al-Assadi et al,32 Kumar et al,33 Yang
et al,39 Uygur et al,41 Martinez and
Ponce,47 Barbosa et al,48 Srinivasan et
al,52 Park and Kang,54 Vassilopoulos
et al,55 Majidian and Saidi,56 Xiao et
al,59 Al-Assadi et al,61 Jin et al,67
Tapkin,68 Moghaddam et al,69
Durodola et al,70 Durodola et al,71
Yang et al73 and Ahmad et al82
Tansig Yang et al,1 Bezazi et al,13 Al-Assadi et
al,32 Zhaohua,35 Barsoum et al,37
Mohanty et al,40 Xiang et al,42
Vadood et al,43 Mishra et al,44 Razzaq
et al,50 Srinivasan et al,52 Al-Assaf,
and El Kadi,53 Majidian and Saidi,56
Mohanty et al,58 Mohanty et al,60
Karakas,63 Peng et al,64 Karakas and
Tomasella,66 Jin et al67 and Abdalla
and Hawileh75
RBF Moghaddam et al,69 Abdalla and
Hawileh,75 Gao et al,76 Zhang et al93
and Zou et al127
Polynomial models Quadratic Salmalian et al,14 Salmalian et al16 and
Canyurt89
Qubic Canyurt89
Exponential model Mohanty et al,40 Mohanty,45 Mohanty
et al58 and Chen et al91
Conventional models Coffin-Manson Kong et al,19 Zhang and Lin,38 Abdalla
and Hawileh,75 Song et al81 and
Basan et al135
SWT Kong et al19
Fawaz-Ellyin Ertas,111 Ertas and Sonmez,117 Ertas
and Sonmez118 and Deveci and
Artem130
Statistical models Figueira Pujol and Andrade Pinto,15
Pleune and Chopra,23 Vadood et al,43
Liu et al,46 Xiao et al,59 Abdalla and
Hawileh,65 Moghaddam et al,69
Zhang et al,93 Vassilopoulos et al100
and Azarhoosh et al102
Others Susmikanti,17 Sohn and Bae,24 Mathew
et al,57 Li et al,80 Karakas et al,90
Kamal et al,92 Agius et al,94 Deveci
and Artem,95 Li129 and Song et al136

Abbreviations: RBF, radial basis function; SWT, Smith-Watson-Topper

KALAYCI ET AL.
be explained by a semilog linear equation, specified in
Ertas111 and shown in Equation 9 as follows:
 
Sr = mr log N f + br , ð9Þ
where ‘mr’ and ‘br’ are two material fatigue parame-
ters whose values depend on loading direction and ‘Nf’ is
the number of cycles.111
4.3.4 | Statistical models
Figueira Pujol and Andrade Pinto15 developed a new
method based on NN for fatigue life prediction. A
feedforward NN was utilized to generate a probability
distribution which was later combined with a linear
cumulative function to predict the fatigue life.
Pleune and Chopra,23 used the ANN methodand the
statistical model developed by Keisler et al (1995), Keisler
et al (1996) to estimate the fatigue life of carbon and low
alloy steels.
Vadood et al,43 linear regression and ANN model
were used to estimate fatigue life of HMA samples based
on fibre parameters. The results showed that GA-
optimized ANN could estimate the fatigue life of fibre-
reinforced asphalt with high accuracy, although the
regression method could not satisfactorily model the rela-
tionship between fibre parameters and fatigue life.
Liu et al46 developed an SVM model for estimating
the fatigue life of vibration isolation rubber materials.
Moghaddam et al69 and Zhang et al93 used the SVM
model for fatigue life estimation. Moghaddam et al69
used the SVM model to estimate the fatigue life of
modified asphalt mixtures. Zhang et al93 applied the
SVM model to fatigue life estimation for P91 steel base
metal and welding consumable. Xiao et al59 used ANN
method and regression analysis for fatigue life estima-
tion of asphalt concrete mixtures. Fatigue life models
were obtained from a regression analysis. Abdalla and
Hawileh65 developed the ANN model to estimate the
fatigue life of steel reinforcing bars based on the
energy dissipated during cyclic loading. Results
obtained by ANN were compared with experimental
results and with predicted results in nonlinear regres-
sion (NLR) models. Vassilopoulos et al100 compared
the results of GP with linear regression, Whitney's
Weibull statistics and Sendeckyj's wear mode for the
modelling fatigue life of FRP composite materials.
Azarhoosh et al102 used a GP-based formulation with a
fatigue life prediction model obtained by multilinear
regression analysis for the fatigue life of asphalt
mixtures.
15
4.3.5 | Other models
Sohn and Bae,24 by the strain energy density factor equa-
tion using ANN, tried to predict the fatigue life of spot-
welded joint having a specific dimension and loading
condition.
Mathew et al57 developed a fatigue life prediction
model using NeuroShell Predictor, which is one of the
modules of the software package called Al Trilogy from
Ward Systems. Kamal et al92 proposed an endurance
function model to estimate the fatigue life of notched
or smooth components. In the methodology, FEA was
used to simplify the application of the endurance func-
tion model. When the model results are compared with
the experimental results, it was concluded that the
model can accurately predict the fatigue life with suit-
able calibration. Deveci and Artem95 applied a fatigue
failure prediction model called failure tensor polyno-
mial in fatigue (FTPF) to laminated composites to
obtain maximum fatigue life under various planar cyclic
loads. Deveci and Artem130 compared fatigue life pre-
diction models, FTPF, FWE (Fawaz and Ellyin), Sims-
Brogdon (SB) and Shokrieh-Taheri (ST) prediction and
optimization capabilities for multidirectional composite
laminates.
4.4 | Input values
Input values are the factors that affect the process and
make changes in a problem. Fatigue life is affected by
many factors such as temperature, microstructure, part
size, surface quality, stress amplitude and stress concen-
tration factor. These factors are also used as input vari-
ables in fatigue life prediction problems. In the studies
investigated in the literature, it was observed that the
stress value and the stress ratio were used most fre-
quently as input variables. Therefore, a conclusion can be
drawn as the stress value and the stress ratio have an
important effect on fatigue life estimation. Figure 7
shows the input values distribution for estimating the
fatigue life of materials.
4.5 | Model performance criteria
Some performance criteria have been presented to evalu-
ate the effectiveness and accuracy of the models in the
studies discussed. In fatigue life estimation studies in the
literature, it was observed that the most commonly used
performance criteria are mean square error (MSE),
RMSE, coefficient of determination (R2), sum square
error (SSE), mean absolute error (MAE), relative error
16 KALAYCI ET AL.

F I G U R E 7 Most-used
input values for estimating
fatigue life of materials

(RE) and normalized mean square error (NMSE). Based RMSE: It is applied to determine the error rate
on these performance criteria, the reliability of the study between the estimated values obtained and the actual
can be interpreted with the obtained error values. Table 9 values. If the RMSE value is close to zero, it means that
shows publications using MSE, RMSE, R2, SSE, MAE, RE the model has a good predictive performance. RMSE is
and NMSE performance criteria, while Figure 8 shows calculated by Equation 11.
the distribution of the performance criteria used for esti-
mating fatigue life. sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
MSE: It is a statistical indicator used to evaluate the 1X n
RMSE = ð Oi − P i Þ 2 , ð11Þ
performance of models. If the MSE value is close to zero, n i=1
it means that the model has a good predictive perfor-
mance. MSE is calculated by Equation 10.

1X n
where ‘n’ represents the observation value, ‘Oi’ is the
MSE = ðOi −Pi Þ2 , ð10Þ
n i=1 actual value and ‘Pi’ is the predictive value.20
R2 : It is a statistical criterion generally used for
regression analysis. An R2 value that is close to 1 indicates
where ‘n’ represents the observation value, ‘Oi’ is the a good fit; it means for values less than 0, there is a weak
actual value and ‘Pi’ is the predictive value.20 fit. R2 is calculated by Equation 12.

TABLE 9 Performance criteria used for estimating fatigue life of materials in literature

Performance criteria Publications

MSE Al Assaf and El Kadi,12 Bezazi et al,13 Rohman et al,18 Kong et al,19 Han,20 Sohn and Bae,24
Vassilopoulos et al,28 Cai et al,30 Kumar et al,33 Zhaohua,35 Vadood et al,43 Liu et al,46 Barbosa et al,48
Lotfi and Beiss,49 Razzaq et al,50 Vassilopoulos et al,55 Mathew et al,57 Mohanty et al,58 Mohanty et al,60
Karakas,63 Karakas and Tomasella,66 Jin et al,67 Abdalla and Hawileh,75 Gao et al,76 El Kadi and
Al-Assaf,77 Tian,79 Song et al,81 Ahmad et al,82 Zhang et al93
RMSE Junior et al,26 Al-Assadi et al,32 Mohanty et al,40 Uygur et al,41 Mohanty,45 Lotfi and Beiss,49 Razzaq et al,50
Srinivasan et al,52 Mathew et al,57 Al-Assadi et al,61 El Kadi,62 Abdalla and Hawileh,65 Jin et al,67
Tapkin,68 Moghaddam et al,69 Durodola et al,71 Yan et al,72 El Kadi and Al-Assaf,77 Lee et al,78
Song et al,81 Chen et al,91 Azarhoosh et al,102 El Kadi et al,125 Gulgec et al134
R2 Rohman et al,18 Kong et al,19 Pleune and Chopra,23 Vassilopoulos et al,28 Mohanty et al,40 Mishra et al,44
Mohanty,45 Liu et al,46 Lotfi and Beiss,49 Mohanty et al,58 Xiao et al,59 Moghaddam et al,69
Durodola et al,70 Yan et al,72 Ahmad et al,82 Zhang et al,93 Deveci and Artem,95 Vassilopoulos et al,100
Azarhoosh et al,102 Sai et al131
SSE Cai et al,30 Zhaohua,35 Mohanty et al,40 Vadood et al,43 Park and Kang,54 Majidian and Saidi,56 Canyurt,89
Karakas et al90
MAE Vassilopoulos et al,28 Lotfi and Beiss,49 Al-Assaf and El Kadi,53 Abdalla and Hawileh,65 Jin et al,67 Abdalla
and Hawileh,75 El Kadi and Al-Assaf,77 Azarhoosh et al102
RE Xu et al,36 Zhang and Lin,38 Mishra et al,44 Peng et al,64 Li et al80
NMSE Al Assaf and El Kadi,12 Abdalla and Hawileh,65 Durodola et al,70 El Kadi and Al-Assaf,74 Abdalla and
Hawileh,75 Sai et al131

Abbreviations: MAE, mean absolute error; MSE, mean square error; NMSE, normalized mean square error; R2, coefficient of determination;
RE, relative error; RMSE, root-mean-square error; SSE, sum square error.
KALAYCI ET AL. 17

F I G U R E 8 Most-used
performance criteria for
estimating fatigue life of
materials

0 12
absolute relative error (MARE)139 and mean relative error
B Pn C
B i = 1 ðOi −OÞðPi −P Þ
C percentage (MRPD).140 RE is calculated by Equation 15.
R2 = B
B s ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi C,
C ð12Þ
@ Pn 2 P
n
2A
i=1 ð O i −O Þ ð P i −P Þ
i=1 X
n
ðPi −Oi Þ
where ‘O’ represents the actual value and ‘P’ is the RE = : ð15Þ
predictive value.137 i=1
ðO i Þ
SSE: The smaller the SSE value representing the SSE,
the greater the accuracy of the prediction.138 SSE is calcu-
lated by Equation 13. NMSE: NMSE is an evaluation criterion used to esti-
mate general deviations between estimated values and
X
n
actual values. NMSE is calculated by Equation 16, where
SSE = ðOi −Pi Þ2 : ð13Þ
‘σ 2’ is the variance value.141
i=1

MAE: The MAE measures the absolute error between
the predictive and experimental values. The closer the
MAE value to zero, the better the estimated value. MAE
is calculated by Equation 14.
1X n
MAE = ∣Oi −Pi ∣:
n i=1
RE: It is known as the ratio of the difference between the
actual value and the estimated value to the actual value.
There are also uses in the literature such as mean
1 1X n
NMSE = ðOi −Pi Þ2 : ð16Þ
σ2 n i = 1
In addition to NMSE, when the fatigue life estimation
studies of the materials were examined, it was seen that
ð14Þ
the normalization process was applied in most of the
studies. The normalization is done to increase the calcu-
lation efficiency of the algorithm. Normalization elimi-
nates data repeats in the database and increases data
consistency and accuracy. Therefore, normalization has a
favourable effect on the solution quality. Publications

TABLE 10 Researches with and without normalization for estimating fatigue life of materials

Normalized operation Publications

Applied researches
Not applied researches
Yang et al,1 Al Assaf and El Kadi,12 Bezazi et al,13 Figueira Pujol and Andrade Pinto,15 Susmikanti,17
Rohman et al,18 Sohn and Bae,24 Genel,25 Junior et al,26 Vassilopoulos et al,28 Mathur et al,29 Cai et al,30
Al-Assadi et al,32 Ma et al,34 Zhaohua,35 Mohanty et al,40 Uygur et al,41 Xiang et al,42 Mishra et al,44
Mohanty,45 Martinez and Ponce,47 Barbosa et al,48 Lotfi and Beiss,49 Razzaq et al,50 Srinivasan et al,52
Al-Assaf and El Kadi,53 Park and Kang,54 Vassilopoulos et al,55 Mohanty et al,58 Mohanty et al,60 Al-Assadi
et al,61 Karakas,63 Peng et al,64 Abdalla and Hawileh,65 Karakas and Tomasella,66 Jin et al,67 Tapkin,68
Durodola et al,70 Yan et al,72 Yang et al,73 El Kadi and Al-Assaf,74 Abdalla and Hawileh,75 Gao et al,76 El
Kadi and Al-Assaf,77 Li et al,80 Song et al,81 Zhang et al,93 Agius et al,94 Xu and Cui,96 Vassilopoulos et
al,100 Azarhoosh et al,102 Sai et al131 and Gulgec et al134
Salmalian et al,14 Salmalian et al,16 Kong et al,19 Han,20 Aymerich and Serra,21 Venkatesh and Rack,22
Pleune and Chopra,23 Marquardt and Zenner,27 Liao et al,31 Kumar et al,33 Xu et al,36 Barsoum et al,37
Zhang and Lin,38 Yang et al,39 Vadood et al,43 Liu et al,46 Artymiak et al,51 Majidian and Saidi,56 Mathew
et al,57 Xiao et al,59 El Kadi,62 Moghaddam et al,69 Durodola et al,71 Lee et al,78 Tian,79 Ahmad et al,82
Canyurt,89 Karakas et al,90 Chen et al,91 Kamal et al,92 Deveci and Artem,95 Ertas,111 Ertas and Sonmez,117
Ertas and Sonmez,118 El Kadi et al,125 Zou et al,127 Li,129 Deveci and Artem,130 Liu et al,132 Kim et al,133
Basan et al135 and Song et al136
18 KALAYCI ET AL.

that apply and do not apply the normalization process 5 | DISCUSSION

are given in Table 10.
Among the publications examined, 45% of the studies
applied normalization while 55% of the studies did not
apply normalization to the data considered.
4.6 | Application software
Fatigue life estimation problems were implemented in
different software environments. In the literature
research, MATLAB, NeuroSolutions, C++ and
ANSYS software were used mostly for this purpose. More-
over, different commercial software also has been used.
MATLAB is a programme used for algorithm develop-
ment, interface creation, graphing, estimation and vari-
ous engineering applications. It is a very comprehensive
software that enables to create particular solutions with
toolboxes and work with different programmes. C++ is
an object-oriented programming language that can be
used in different engineering branches. Neuro-Solutions
is used for purposes such as classification, clustering and
prediction and offer a powerful ANN architecture devel-
opment environment. It also offers plugins such as
Neuro-Solutions for Excel and Neuro-Solutions for
MATLAB. ANSYS is a computer-aided engineering pro-
gramme that is used to analyse and simulate engineering
researches.
Table 11 shows the publications and what software
they utilize, while Figure 9 shows the distribution of
software used to estimate the fatigue life of materials.
The uncertainty and complexity encountered in real-life
problems make it difficult for experts to predict and make
correct decisions while generating solutions. Soft comput-
ing techniques are useful tools for problems that are diffi-
cult to solve mathematically. Soft computing methods
aim at efficiently finding near-optimal solutions by using
intuition, thought, logic, information and decision-
making skills in solving complex problems that are diffi-
cult to solve with traditional methods. In this way, elimi-
nating uncertainties with lower costs, providing less
exposure to human errors and obtaining successful out-
comes are possible. Moreover, estimating the factors that
may affect the current workflow is easily achieved.
Although soft computing methodologies are very suc-
cessful in fatigue life optimization, some limitations
affect the accuracy of the results. Especially, the data
required for estimation should be complete and consis-
tent. Therefore, an initial process of data evaluation and
correct filtering should be applied before algorithm
application.
As any method cannot be considered a universal
model, additional research and development studies are
still required for accurate and reliable fatigue life predic-
tion. Therefore, it may not be reasonable to expect a
universal model, and the next step should be imple-
menting algorithms focused on problem-specific
generalization.
These techniques can also provide the basis for build-
ing expert systems. Expert systems are formed by the

TABLE 11 Most-used application software for estimating fatigue life of materials

Software Publications
MATLAB Yang et al,1 Bezazi et al,13 Susmikanti,17 Rohman et al,18 Junior et al,26 Zhaohua,35 Xu et al,36 Yang et al,39 Mohanty et
al,40 Uygur et al,41 Xiang et al,42 Vadood et al,43 Mishra et al,44 Mohanty,45 Razzaq et al,50 Al-Assaf, and El Kadi,53
Mohanty et al,60 Al-Assadi et al,61 Karakas,63 Karakas and Tomasella,66 Tapkin,68 Moghaddam et al,69 Durodola et
al,70 Durodola et al,71 Yan et al,72 El Kadi and Al-Assaf,77 Deveci and Artem,95 Azarhoosh et al,102 El Kadi et al125
and Deveci and Artem130
C ++ Genel,25 Mathur et al,29 Kumar et al,33 Mohanty et al,40 Mohanty et al58 and Kim et al133
Neurosolution Al Assaf and El Kadi,12 Abdalla and Hawileh,65 El Kadi and Al-Assaf74 and El Kadi and Al-Assaf77
ANSYS Kamal et al92 and Ertas and Sonmez117

F I G U R E 9 Most-used
application software for
estimating fatigue life of
materials
KALAYCI ET AL.
transfer of comprehensive information to computers.
This information is stored on computers and provide
advice as a consultant for users. Since system designers
may not accurately predict fatigue life just by trusting the
expertise, a high level of computational effort provided
by these methodologies would enhance the reliability of
these systems. In this respect, soft computing techniques
can help developing expert systems in estimating/
predicting fatigue life and solving complex engineering
problems. Faster planning of decisions with high accu-
racy by examining the big data is possible with these
methodologies. Due to the rapid changes in fields such as
science, technology and engineering, the development of
these techniques will be beneficial in terms of adapting to
changing conditions.
6 | C ON C L US I ON
In the last two decades, soft computing methodologies
had been extensively studied and applied in scientific
research and engineering studies. In this study, various
soft computing methodologies implemented for fatigue
life estimation of materials in the literature were investi-
gated. For this purpose, the problem applications and
results of ANNs, GAs, PSO, GP, SVMs and ACO method-
ologies in the literature are explained. It was aimed to
draw attention to these methodologies since soft comput-
ing methodologies had achieved efficient results by
quickly providing a successful performance in fatigue life
estimation. The literature showed that soft computing
methodologies are also practically convenient tools to
construct hybrid algorithms combining various tech-
niques which may provide better solutions by removing
some limitations.
In line with the proposed solution methods and
approaches for fatigue life estimation, this literature anal-
ysis had created a field of research to guide researchers
for future research as follows:
• Although algorithms such as ANNs, PSO and GAs are
often implemented for estimation, many other heuris-
tic optimization algorithms can be further investigated
for performance in fatigue life estimation. Soft comput-
ing methods, about the analysis and design of smart
systems, can provide good performance. Therefore, it
will be useful to develop new techniques to adapt to
changing conditions. The performance of the algo-
rithms should be further investigated.
• Sensitivity analysis performed on determining the
influence of various factors is also crucial for assessing
fatigue life as well as designing reliable systems.
19
Therefore, sensitivity analysis in fatigue life prediction
studies would also contribute to this research domain.
• Although soft computing methods have been suc-
cessful in problem-solving, new approaches should
be offered for more efficient and reliable solutions.
This concept remains as a challenge to think outside
the box.
• In the age of rapidly advancing technology, encourag-
ing efforts should be increased to try different
artificial/computational intelligence techniques and
design algorithms. Today, artificial intelligence and rel-
evant applications utilized in the fields of engineering
and technology are expected to be used more in the
future in line with increasing needs, changes and
expectations.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study was supported by the Scientific Research
Coordination Unit of Pamukkale University under
the following project numbers: 2018FEBE037,
2020KRM005-065 and 2020KRM005-005.
ORCID
Özler Karakas https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6648-7865
RE FER EN CES
1. Yang X, Zou L, Deng W. Fatigue life prediction for welding
components based on hybrid intelligent technique. Mater Sci
Eng a. 2015;642:253-261.
2. Cui W. A state-of-the-art review on fatigue life prediction
methods for metal structures. J Mar Sci Technol. 2002;7(1):
43-56.
3. Santecchia E, Hamouda AMS, Musharavati F, et al. A review
on fatigue life prediction methods for metals. Adv. Mater. Sci.
Eng. 2016;2016:1-26.
4. Kamal M, Rahman MM. Advances in fatigue life modeling: a
review. Renew Sustain Energy Rev. 2018;82:940-949.
5. Abdel Wahab MM. Fatigue in adhesively bonded joints: a
review. ISRN Materials Science. 2012;2012:1-25.
6. Wicaksono S, Chai GB. A review of advances in fatigue and
life prediction of fiber-reinforced composites. Proc IMechE
Part L: J Materials: Design and Applications. 2012;227(3):
179-195.
7. Mortazavian S, Fatemi A. Fatigue behavior and modeling of
short fiber reinforced polymer composites: a literature review.
Int J Fatigue. 2015;70:297-321.
8. Wagare V. Fatigue life prediction of spot welded joints: a
review. Proceedings of Fatigue, Durability and Fracture
Mechanics, Springer, Singapore. 2018;445-455.
9. Zadeh LA. Fuzzy Sets. Information and Control. 1965;8(3):
338-353.
10. Huang Y, Lan Y, Thomson SJ, Fang A, Hoffmann WC,
Lacey RE. Development of soft computing and applications in
agricultural and biological engineering. Comput Electron
Agric. 2010;71(2):107-127.
20
11. Bilgili M, Sahin B, Yasar A. Application of artificial neural
networks for the wind speed prediction of target station
using reference stations data. Renew Energy. 2007;32(14):2350-
2360.
12. Al-Assaf Y, El Kadi H. Fatigue life prediction of unidirectional
glass fiber/epoxy composite laminae using neural networks.
Compos. Struct. 2001;53(1):65-71.
13. Bezazi A, Pierce SG, Worden K, Harkati E. Fatigue life predic-
tion of sandwich composite materials under flexural tests
using a Bayesian trained artificial neural network. Int J
Fatigue. 2007;29(4):738-747.
14. Salmalian K, Nariman-Zadeh N, Gharababei H,
Haftchenari H, Varvani-Farahani A. Multi-objective evolu-
tionary optimization of polynomial neural networks for
fatigue life modelling and prediction of unidirectional carbon
fibre-reinforced plastics composites. Proceedings of the Institu-
tion of Mechanical Engineers, Part L: Journal of Materials:
Design and Applications. 2010;224(2):79-91.
15. Figueira Pujol JC, Andrade Pinto JM. A neural network
approach to fatigue life prediction. Int J Fatigue. 2011;33(3):
313-322.
16. Salmalian K, Soleimani M, Rouhi S. Fatigue life modeling and
prediction of GRP composites using multi-objective evolution-
ary optimized neural networks. Int J Math Models Methods
Appl Sci. 2012;1(6):1-10.
17. Susmikanti M. The fatigue life prediction of aluminium alloy
using genetic algorithm and neural network. Padjadjaran
International Physics Symposium 2013, In AIP Conf Proc. 2013;
1554:174-177.
18. Rohman MN, Hidayat MIP, Purniawan A. Prediction of com-
posite fatigue life under variable amplitude loading using arti-
ficial neural network trained by genetic algorithm. In AIP
Conf. Proc. AIP Publishing LLC. 2018;1945(1).–.
19. Kong YS, Abdullah S, Schramm D, Omar MZ, Haris SM. Opti-
mization of spring fatigue life prediction model for vehicle
ride using hybrid multi-layer perceptron artificial neural net-
works. Mech Syst sig Process. 2019;122:597-621.
20. Han YL. Artificial neural network technology as a method to
evaluate the fatigue life of weldments with welding defects.
Int J Press Vessels pip. 1995;63(2):205-209.
21. Aymerich F, Serra M. Prediction of fatigue strength of com-
posite laminates by means of neural networks. Key Eng.
Mater. 1998;144:231-242.
22. Venkatesh V, Rack HJ. A neural network approach to ele-
vated temperature creep-fatigue life prediction. Int J Fatigue.
1999;21(3):225-234.
23. Pleune TT, Chopra OK. Using artificial neural networks to
predict the fatigue life of carbon and low-alloy steels. Nucl
Eng des. 2000;197(1–2):1-12.
24. Sohn I, Bae D. Fatigue life prediction of spot-welded joint by
strain energy density factor using artificial neural network.
Key Eng Mater. 2000;183-187:957-962.
25. Genel K. Application of artificial neural network for
predicting strain-life fatigue properties of steels on the basis of
tensile tests. Int J Fatigue. 2004;26(10):1027-1035.
26. Junior RCSF, Neto ADD, Aquino EMF. Building of constant
life diagrams of fatigue using artificial neural networks. Int J
Fatigue. 2005;27(7):746-751.
KALAYCI ET AL.
27. Marquardt C, Zenner H. Lifetime calculation under variable
amplitude loading with the application of artificial neural net-
works. Int J Fatigue. 2005;27(8):920-927.
28. Vassilopoulos AP, Georgopoulos EF, Dionysopoulos V.
Modelling fatigue life of multidirectional GFRP laminates
under constant amplitude loading with artificial neural net-
works. Advanced Composites Letters. 2006;15(2):43-51.
29. Mathur S, Gope PC, Sharma JK. Prediction of Fatigue Lives of
Composites Material by Artificial Neural Network. , June 4-6: ;
2007.
30. Cai M, Yang D, Li Q, Zhong L. Optimization of The Fatigue
Life of Epoxy Molding Compounds Based on BP Neural Net-
work Prediction Model. Shanghai, China: 2008 International
Conference on Electronic Packaging Technology & High Den-
sity Packaging.IEEE; 2008.–.
31. Liao X, Xu W, Gao Z. Application of artificial neural network
to forecast the tensile fatigue life of carbon material. Key Eng.
Mater. 2008;385-387:533-536.
32. Al-Assadi M, El Kadi H, Deiab IM. Predicting the fatigue life
of different composite materials using artificial neural net-
works. Appl. Compos. Mater. 2010;17(1):1-14.
33. Kumar JSP, Devi MS, Raghava G, Stanley AJ. Neural net-
works based fatigue life prediction of multi walled carbon
nano tubes doped E-glass/epoxy laminates. Int J Vehicle Struc-
tures & Systems. 2010;2(1):9-13.
34. Ma D, Chen Z, Shan X. Forecasting of the fatigue life of metal
weld joints based on combined genetic neural network. Key
Eng. Mater. 2010;439-440:195-201.
35. Zhaohua W. Optimal Design and Fatigue Life Prediction for
QFN Solder Joints by BP Artificial Neural Networks and
Genetic Algorithm. IEEE, Xi'an, China: 11th International
Conference on Electronic Packaging Technology & High Den-
sity Packaging; 2010:938-943.
36. Xu CL, Lv SL, Wang ZG, Zhang W. Predicting fatigue life of
pre-corroded LC4 Aluminum alloy by artificial neural net-
work. Adv Mat Res. 2010;118-120:221-225.
37. Barsoum F, Hill E, Zhang Y, Korcak A, Suleman J. Procedures
for fatigue crack growth monitoring and fatigue life prediction
using acoustic emission data and neural networks. Structure
Congress. 2011;2011:2341-2352.
38. Zhang GQ, Lin HB. Fatigue life prediction based on GA-BP
algorithm. Key Eng. Mater. 2011;474-476:2114-2119.
39. Yang X, Deng W, Zou L, Zhao H, Liu J. Fatigue behaviors pre-
diction method of welded joints based on soft computing
methods. Mater. Sci. Eng., A. 2013;559:574-582.
40. Mohanty JR, Das HC, Mohanty AC. Comparative study of
fatigue life prediction of 7020 Al-alloy under load ratio effect.
Indian J Eng Mater Sci. 2014;21:179-188.
41. Uygur I, Cicek A, Toklu E, Kara R, Sarıdemir S. Fatigue life
predictions of metal matrix composites using artificial neural
networks. Arch Metall Mater. 2014;59(1):97-103.
42. Xiang KL, Xiang PY, Wu YP. Prediction of the fatigue life of
natural rubber composites by artificial neural network
approaches. Mater des. 2014;57:180-185.
43. Vadood M, Johari MS, Rahai AR. Relationship between
fatigue life of asphalt concrete and polypropylene/polyester
fibers using artificial neural network and genetic algorithm.
J Cent South Univ. 2015;22(5):1937-1946.
KALAYCI ET AL.
44. Mishra SK, Brahma A, Dutta K. Low cycle fatigue life predic-
tion of Al-Si-mg alloy using artificial neural network
approach. Trans Indian Inst Met. 2016;69(2):597-602.
45. Mohanty JR. Fatigue crack growth life prediction of 6061 Al-
alloy under load ratio effect by using ANFIS. IJAERS. 2016;3
(11):199-204.
46. Liu Q, Shi W, Chen Z. Fatigue life prediction for vibration iso-
lation rubber based on parameter-optimized support vector
machine model. Fatigue Fract Eng Mater Struct. 2019;42(3):
710-718.
47. Jimenez-Martinez M, Alfaro-Ponce M. Fatigue damage effect
approach by artificial neural network. Int J Fatigue. 2019;124:
42-47.
48. Barbosa JF, Correia JA, Júnior RF, De Jesus AM. Fatigue life
prediction of metallic materials considering mean stress
effects by means of an artificial neural network. Int J Fatigue.
2020;135:105527.
49. Lotfi B, Beiss P. Application of neural networking for fatigue
limit prediction of powder metallurgy steel parts. Mater. Des.
2013;50:440-445.
50. Razzaq MA, Ariffin KA, El Shafie A, Abdullah S, Sajuri Z,
Akeel NA. Adaptive neural network modelling in fatigue life
prediction under load history effects. Adv Mat Res. 2011;
284-286:1266-1270.
51. Artymiak P, Bukowski L, Feliks J, Narberhaus S, Zenner H.
Determination of S-N curves with the application of artificial
neural networks. Fatigue Fract Eng Mater Struct. 1999;22(8):
723-728.
52. Srinivasan VS, Valsan M, Sankara Rao KB, Mannan SL,
Raj B. Low cycle fatigue and creep-fatigue interaction behav-
ior of 316L (N) stainless steel and life prediction by artificial
neural network approach. Int J Fatigue. 2003;25(12):1327-
1338.
53. Al-Assaf Y, El Kadi H. Fatigue life prediction of composite
materials using polynomial classifiers and recurrent neural
networks. Compos. Struct. 2007;77(4):561-569.
54. Park JM, Kang HT. Prediction of fatigue life for spot welds
using back-propagation neural networks. Mater. Des. 2007;28
(10):2577-2584.
55. Vassilopoulos AP, Georgopoulos EF, Dionysopoulos V. Artifi-
cial neural networks in spectrum fatigue life prediction of
composite materials. Int J Fatigue. 2007;29(1):20-29.
56. Majidian A, Saidi MH. Comparison of fuzzy logic and neural
network in life prediction of boiler tubes. Int J Fatigue. 2007;
29(3):489-498.
57. Mathew MD, Kim DW, Ryu WS. A neural network model to
predict low cycle fatigue life of nitrogen-alloyed 316L stainless
steel. Mater. Sci. Eng., A. 2008;474(1–2):247-253.
58. Mohanty JR, Parhi DRK, Ray PK, Verma BB. Prediction of
residual fatigue life under interspersed mixed-mode (I and II)
overloads by artificial neural network. Fatigue Fract Eng
Mater Struct. 2009;32(12):1020-1031.
59. Xiao F, Amirkhanian S, Juang CH. Prediction of fatigue life of
rubberized asphalt concrete mixtures containing reclaimed
asphalt pavement using artificial neural networks. J Mater Civ
Eng. 2009;21(6):253-261.
60. Mohanty JR, Verma BB, Ray PK, Parhi DRK. Application of
artificial neural network for fatigue life prediction under
21
interspersed mode-I spike overload. J Test Eval. 2010;38(2):
177-187.
61. Al-Assadi M, El Kadi HA, Deiab IM. Using artificial neural
networks to predict the fatigue life of different composite
materials including the stress ratio effect. Appl Compos Mater.
2011;18(4):297-309.
62. El Kadi HA. Fatigue life prediction of composite materials:
artificial neural networks vs polynomial classifiers. Key Eng
Mater. 2011;471-472:221-226.
63. Karakas O. Estimation of fatigue life for aluminium welded
joints with the application of artificial neural networks.
Materialwiss Werkstofftech. 2011;42(10):888-893.
64. Peng S, Xiao J, Tian Y, Zhang Y, Jie F, Zhi-jian H. Coiled Tub-
ing Working Life Prediction Based on BP Algorithm of Artificial
Neural Network. IADC/SPE Asia Pacific Drilling Technology
Conference and Exhibition</em>, Society of Petroleum Engi-
neers. 9–11 July, Tianjin, China, 2012.
65. Abdalla JA, Hawileh RA. Artificial neural network predic-
tions of fatigue life of steel bars based on hysteretic energy.
J Comput Civ Eng. 2013;27(5):489-496.
66. Karakas O, Tomasella A. Fatigue life estimation of non-
penetrated butt weldments in light metals by artificial neural
network approach. Materialwiss. Werkstofftech. 2013;44(10):
847-855.
67. Jin H, Wu S, Peng Y. Prediction of contact fatigue life of alloy
cast steel rolls using back-propagation neural network.
J Mater Eng Perform. 2013;22(12):3631-3638.
68. Tapkin S. Estimation of fatigue lives of fly ash modified dense
bituminous mixtures based on artificial neural networks.
Mater Res. 2014;17(2):316-325.
69. Moghaddam TB, Soltani M, Shahraki HS, Shamshirband S,
Noor NBM, Karim MR. The use of SVM-FFA in estimating
fatigue life of polyethylene terephthalate modified asphalt
mixtures. Measurement. 2016;90:526-533.
70. Durodola JF, Li N, Ramachandra S, Thite AN. A pattern rec-
ognition artificial neural network method for random fatigue
loading life prediction. Int J Fatigue. 2017;99:55-67.
71. Durodola JF, Ramachandra S, Gerguri S, Fellows NA. Artifi-
cial neural network for random fatigue loading analysis
including the effect of mean stress. Int J Fatigue. 2018;111:
321-332.
72. Yan C, Gao R, Huang W. Asphalt mixture fatigue life predic-
tion model based on neural network. J Infrastruct Syst. 2014;
1292-1299.
73. Yang J, Kang G, Liu Y, Chen K, Kan Q. Life prediction for
rate-dependent low-cycle fatigue of PA6 polymer considering
ratchetting: semi-empirical model and neural network based
approach. Int J Fatigue. 2020;105619.
74. El Kadi H, Al-Assaf Y. Prediction of the fatigue life of unidi-
rectional glass fiber/epoxy composite laminae using different
neural network paradigms. Compos Struct. 2002;55(2):
239-246.
75. Abdalla JA, Hawileh R. Modeling and simulation of low-cycle
fatigue life of steel reinforcing bars using artificial neural net-
work. J Franklin Inst. 2011;348(7):1393-1403.
76. Gao HL, Shi XH, Feng LC, Xu LP. Condition monitoring and
life prediction of rolling guide based on hybrid intelligence.
Appl Mech Mater. 2011;2045-2049:44-47.
22
77. El Kadi HA, Al-Assaf Y. The Use of Neural Networks in the
Prediction of the Fatigue Life of Different Composite Materials.
Kyoto, Japan: 16Th International Conference On Composite
Materials; 2007.
78. Lee JA, Almond DP, Harris B. The use of neural networks for
the prediction of fatigue lives of composite materials. Compos-
ites Part a. 1999;30(10):1159-1169.
79. Tian Z. An artificial neural network approach for remaining
useful life prediction of equipments subject to condition moni-
toring. In: 2009 8th international conference on reliability.
Vol.2009 IEEE, Chengdu, China: Maintainability and Safety:
143-148.
80. Li N, Yan WP, Ye F, Ma LY. Creep-fatigue interaction life pre-
diction for P91 steel based on improved Elman neural net-
work model. Adv Mat Res. 2012;535-537:674-677.
81. Song LK, Bai GC, Fei CW, Wen J. Reliability-based fatigue life
prediction for complex structure with time-varying surrogate
modeling. Adv Mater Sci Eng. 2018;2018:1-16.
82. Ahmad HW, Hwang JH, Javed K, Chaudry UM, Bae DH.
Probabilistic fatigue life prediction of dissimilar material weld
using accelerated life method and neural network approach.
Computation. 2019;7(1).
83. Marti R, Reinelt G. Heuristic Methods. Springer, Berlin, Hei-
delberg: The Linear Ordering Problem; 2011:17-40.
84. Bonyadi MR, Azghadi MR, Shah-Hosseini H. Population-
Based Optimization Algorithms for Solving the Travelling Sales-
man Problem. 202 Vienna, Austria: Traveling Salesman Prob-
lem; 2008.
85. Kalayci CB, Ertenlice O, Akbay MA. A comprehensive review
of deterministic models and applications for mean-
variance portfolio optimization. Expert Syst. Appl. 2019;125:
345-368.
86. Min SH, Lee J, Han p. Hybrid genetic algorithms and support
vector machines for bankruptcy Prediction. Expert Syst. Appl.
2006;31(3):652-660.
87. Kalayci CB, Polat O, Gupta SM. A hybrid genetic algorithm
for sequence-dependent disassembly line balancing problem.
Annals of Operations Research. 2016;242(2):321-354.
88. Ahn H, Kim KJ. Bankruptcy prediction modeling with hybrid
case-based reasoning and genetic algorithms approach. Appl
Soft Comput. 2009;9(2):599-607.
89. Canyurt OE. Fatigue strength estimation of adhesively bonded
tubular joint using genetic algorithm approach. Int J Mech Sci.
2004;46(3):359-370.
90. Karakas O, Canyurt OE, Gulsoz A. Fatigue strength estima-
tion of butt welded joints in magnesium AZ31 alloy using the
genetic algorithm. Materialwiss Werkstofftech. 2008;39(3):
234-240.
91. Chen P, Koide Y, Li K, Satonaga N. Life prediction of rolling
bearing using genetic algorithm. Appl Mech Mater. 2011;
58-60:2423-2427.
92. Kamal M, Rahman MM, Sani MSM. Fatigue life prediction
using simplified endurance function model. Adv Mech Eng.
2013;5:581754.
93. Zhang L, Lei J, Zhou Q, Wang Y. Using genetic algorithm to
optimize parameters of support vector machine and its appli-
cation in material fatigue life prediction. Advances in Natural
Science. 2015;8(1):21-26.
KALAYCI ET AL.
94. Agius D, Kajtaz M, Kourousis KI, et al. Sensitivity and optimi-
sation of the Chaboche plasticity model parameters in strain-
life fatigue predictions. Mater. Des. 2017;118:107-121.
95. Deveci HA, Artem HS. Optimum design of fatigue-resistant
composite laminates using hybrid algorithm. Compos. Struct.
2017;168:178-188.
96. Xu C, Cui J. Prediction of Residual Fatigue Life of Bolts Based
on Metal Magnetic Memory. 2018 Beijing, IEEE, China: 2018
International applied computational electromagnetics society
symposium:1-2.
97. Koza JR. Genetic Programming: On the Programming of Com-
puters by Means of Natural Selection. MIT press; 1992.
98. McKee TE, Lensberg T. Genetic programming and rough sets:
a hybrid approach to bankruptcy classification. Eur. J. Oper.
Res. 2002;138(2):436-451.
99. Etemadi H, Rostamy AAA, Dehkordi HF. A genetic program-
ming model for bankruptcy prediction: empirical evidence
from Iran. Expert Syst. Appl. 2009;36(2):3199-3207.
100. Vassilopoulos AP, Georgopoulos EF, Keller T. Comparison of
genetic programming with conventional methods for fatigue
life modeling of FRP composite materials. Int J Fatigue. 2008;
30(9):1634-1645.
101. Mohanty JR, Mahanta TK, Mohanty A, Thatoi DN. Prediction
of constant amplitude fatigue crack growth life of 2024 T3 Al
alloy with R-ratio effect by GP. Appl Soft Comput. 2015;26:
428-434.
102. Azarhoosh AR, Zojaji Z, Moghadas NF. Nonlinear genetic-
base models for prediction of fatigue life of modified asphalt
mixtures by precipitated calcium carbonate. Road Materials
and Pavement Design. 2018;1-17.
103. Ertenlice O, Kalayci CB. A survey of swarm intelligence for
portfolio optimization: algorithms and applications. Swarm
Evol Comput. 2018;39:36-52.
104. Kalayci CB, Gupta SM. Artificial bee colony algorithm for
solving sequence-dependent disassembly line balancing prob-
lem. Expert Syst. Appl. 2013;40(18):7231-7241.
105. Kalayci CB, Hancilar A, Gungor A, Gupta SM. Multi-objective
fuzzy disassembly line balancing using a hybrid
discrete artificial bee colony algorithm. J Manuf Syst. 2015;37:
672-682.
106. Kalayci CB, Ertenlice O, Akyer H, Aygoren H. An artificial
bee colony algorithm with feasibility enforcement and infeasi-
bility toleration procedures for cardinality constrained portfo-
lio optimization. Expert Syst Appl. 2017;85:61-75.
107. Kalayci CB, Karagoz S, Karakas O. Bee colony intelligence in
fatigue life estimation of simulated magnesium alloy welds.
Int J Fatigue. 2019;127:36-44.
108. Eberhart R, Kennedy J. A New Optimizer Using Particle
Swarm Theory. IEEE, Nagoya, Japan: MHS'95 Proceedings of
the Sixth International Symposium on Micro Machine and
Human Science; 1995:39-43.
109. Kalayci CB, Gupta SM. A particle swarm optimization algo-
rithm with Neighborhood-based mutation for sequence-
dependent disassembly line balancing problem. The Interna-
tional Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. 2013;
69(1–4):197-209.
110. Assareh E, Behrang MA, Assari MR, Ghanbarzadeh A. Appli-
cation of PSO (particle swarm optimization) and GA (genetic
KALAYCI ET AL.
algorithm) techniques on demand estimation of oil in Iran.
Energy. 2010;35(12):5223-5229.
111. Ertas AH. Optimization of fiber reinforced laminates for maxi-
mum fatigue life using particle swarm optimization. Procedia
Eng. 2012;38:473-478.
112. Dorigo M, Caro GD, Gambardella LM. Ant algorithms for dis-
crete optimization. Artif Life. 1999;5(2):137-172.
113. Shaaban S, Hudson S, Kalayci CB, Gupta SM. Ant colony opti-
mization for sequence-dependent disassembly line balancing
problem. J Manuf Technol Manage. 2013;24(3):413-427.
114. Kalayci CB, Kaya C. An ant colony system empowered vari-
able neighborhood search algorithm for the vehicle routing
problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery. Expert Syst.
Appl. 2016;66:163-175.
115. Kirkpatrick S, Gelatt CD, Vecchi MP. Optimization by simu-
lated annealing. Science. 1983;22(4598):671-680.
116. Kalayci CB, Gupta SM. Simulated annealing algorithm for
solving sequence-dependent disassembly line balancing prob-
lem. IFAC Proceedings Volumes. 2013;46(9):93-98.
117. Ertas AH, Sonmez FO. Design of fiber reinforced laminates
for maximum fatigue life. Procedia Eng. 2010;2(1):251-256.
118. Ertas AH, Sonmez FO. Design optimization of fiber-reinforced
laminates for maximum fatigue life. J Compos Mater. 2014;48
(20):2493-2503.
119. Kalayci CB, Gupta SM. A tabu search algorithm for balancing
a sequence-dependent disassembly line. Production Planning &
Control. 2014;25(2):149-160.
120. Polat O, Kalayci CB, Kulak O, Gunther HO. A perturbation
based variable neighborhood search heuristic for solving the
vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and deliv-
ery with time limit. Eur J Oper Res. 2015;242(2):369-382.
121. Shaaban S, Darwish AS, Kalayci CB, Polat O, Gupta SM. A
variable neighbourhood search algorithm for disassembly
lines. J Manuf Technol Manage. 2015;26(2):182-194.
122. Cortes C, Vapnik V. Support-vector networks. Machine Learn-
ing. 1995;20(3):273-297.
123. Kavzoglu T, Colkesen IA. Kernel functions analysis for sup-
port vector machines for land cover classification. Int J Appl
Earth Obs Geoinf. 2009;11(5):352-359.
124. Assaleh K, El-Baz H, Al-Salkhadi S. Predicting stock prices
using polynomial classifiers: the case of Dubai financial mar-
ket. Journal of Intelligent Learning Systems and Applications.
2011;3(02):82-89.
125. El Kadi H, Deiab IM, Al-Assadi M. Fatigue life prediction of
different fiber-reinforced composites using polynomial classi-
fiers. J Eng Mater Technol. 2011;133(2):.
126. Pawlak Z. Rough sets. International Journal of Computer &
Information Sciences. 1982;11(5):341-356.
127. Zou L, Sun Y, Yang X. An entropy-based Neighborhood rough
set and PSO-SVRM model for fatigue life prediction of tita-
nium alloy welded joints. Entropy. 2019;21(2):117–130.
128. Zalnezhad E, Sarhan AA, Hamdi M. Adhesion strength
predicting of Cr/CrN coated Al7075 using fuzzy logic system for
fretting fatigue life enhancement. 1 San Francisco, USA: Pro-
ceedings of the World Congress on Engineering and Com-
puter Science; 2013:2-8.
129. Li W. Study on the fuzziness in fatigue life estimation of the
foundation of offshore wind turbine. Adv Mat Res. 2011;
243-249:4741-4745.
23
130. Deveci HA, Artem HS. On the estimation and optimization
capabilities of the fatigue life prediction models in composite
laminates. J Reinf Plast Compos. 2018;37(21):1304-1321.
131. Sai W, Chai GB, Srikanth N. Fatigue life prediction of GLARE
composites using regression tree ensemble-based machine
learning model. Adv. Theor. Simul. 2020;2000048.
132. Liu X, Xuan FZ, Si J, Tu ST. Expert system for remnant life
prediction of defected components under fatigue and creep-
fatigue loadings. Expert Syst. Appl. 2008;34(1):222-230.
133. Kim YH, Song JH, Park JH. An expert system for fatigue life
prediction under variable loading. Expert Syst. Appl. 2009;36
(3):4996-5008.
134. Gulgec NS, Takac M, Pakzad SN. Structural sensing with deep
learning: strain estimation from acceleration data for fatigue
assessment. Comput -Aided Civ Infrastruct Eng. 2020;:.
135. Basan R, Franulovic M, Rubesa D, Prebil I. Implementation of
strain-life fatigue parameters estimation methods in a web-
based system. Procedia Eng. 2011;10:2363-2368.
136. Song LK, Bai GC, Fei CW. Probabilistic LCF life assessment
for turbine discs with DC strategy-based wavelet neural net-
work regression. Int J Fatigue. 2019;119:204-219.
137. Tiwari MK, Adamowski JF. An ensemble wavelet bootstrap
machine learning approach to water demand forecasting: a
case study in the city of Calgary, Canada. Urban Water J.
2015;14(2):185-201.
138. Peng X. TSVR: an efficient twin support vector machine for
regression. Neural Netw. 2010;23(3):365-372.
139. Ebtehaj I, Bonakdari H, Sharifi A. Design criteria for sediment
transport in sewers based on self-cleansing concept.
J Zhejiang Univ-Sci a. 2014;15(11):914-924.
140. Rajkovic K, Pekmezovic M, Barac A, Nikodinovic-Runic J,
Arsenijevic VA. Inhibitory effect of thyme and cinnamon
essential oils on Aspergillus flavus: optimization and activity
prediction model development. Ind Crops Prod. 2015;65:7-13.
141. Fathi M, Mohebbi M, Razavi SMA. Application of image anal-
ysis and artificial neural network to predict mass transfer
kinetics and color changes of osmotically dehydrated kiwi-
fruit. Food Bioproc Tech. 2011;4(8):1357-1366.
142. Wu SJ, Gebraeel N, Lawley MA, Yih Y. A neural network
integrated decision support system for condition-based opti-
mal predictive maintenance policy. IEEE Transactions on Sys-
tems Man and Cybernetics Part A-Systems and Humans. 2007;
37 226–236.
143. Keisler J, Chopra OK, Shack WJ.
144. Keisler J, Chopra OK, Shack WJ. Fatigue strain life behavior
of carbon and low-alloy steels, austenitic stainless steels, and
alloy 600 in LWR environments. Nucl Eng Des. 1996;167
129–154.
How to cite this article: Kalayci CB, Karagoz S,
Karakas Ö. Soft computing methods for fatigue life
estimation: A review of the current state and future
trends. Fatigue Fract Eng Mater Struct. 2020;1–23.
https://doi.org/10.1111/ffe.13343