On the physical origin of fatigue phenomena
  The fractional power-law material behavior has been investigated within the framework of a modified mean field theory, in which high-temperature structure precursors in a crystalline or polycrystalline material are treated as a partially ordered liquid over a wide range of temperature. By doing so, the relaxation behavior of the material can be studied via a modified Landau-Khalatnikov equation. It then becomes clear that, as the special cases of the fractional power-law behavior, seemingly quite different fatigue phenomena and physical deterioration are governed by a fundamental physical phenomenon, i.e., the competition between ordered structures and partially ordered high-temperature structure precursors during a series of atomic relaxation processes. 
John Y. Fu
cond-mat.mtrl-sci cond-mat.soft