Possible alternative fatigue formulations to predict lifetime under variable-amplitude loading are investigated. Test results of WISPER and WISPERX variable-amplitude tests on a material representative for wind turbine rotor blades are used. All fatigue calculations are performed using Rainflow counting of the WISPER(X) load histories and employing the Miner summation. The formulation of the SN-curve and the constant-life diagram are varied. Commonly, a log-log SN-curve is used in combination with a linear Goodman constant-life relation. However, in previous work, it was found that these formulations overestimate lifetime of specimens subjected to the variable-amplitude WISPER and WISPERX load histories. This previous work suggested that the SN-formulation be changed and also used an alternative constant-life formulation with parallel lines. These formulations and variations on them are investigated. Also, constant-amplitude data for R = 0.1 are included to construct an alternative constant-life diagram. Including R = 0.1 constant-amplitude data in the lifetime predictions for WISPER(X) seems to improve the accuracy of the calculation. The alternative constant-life formulation might remove the non-conservatism from the lifetime prediction and account for the difference in lifetime between WISPER and WISPERX.

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