International Journal of Fatigue 32 (2010) 788–789
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
International Journal of Fatigue
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfatigue
Obituary
Obituary of Dr. Ing. Walter Schütz
Walter Schütz was born on 15 June 1929 in Nürnberg. He
passed away on 1 October 2009 after a long period of illness. Wal-
ter started his career on fatigue research in 1957 in the Laborato-
rium für Betriebsfestigkeit (LBF) in Darmstadt where Gassner
was already well-known for the introduction of program fatigue
tests to replace simple constant-amplitude fatigue tests. A mile-
stone in the LBF period was the doctor thesis of Walter entitled:
‘‘On the relation between fatigue life obtained under constant-
amplitude loading and variable-amplitude loading, and the signif-
icance for designing aircraft components” (written in German in
1965). Walter continued his research in 1969 in the laboratories
of IABG (Industrieanlagen Betriebsgesellschaft) in Ottobrunn until
his retirement in 1994. In Ottobrunn he composed a new depart-
ment on fatigue strength and fracture mechanics which became
well recognized for research on practical fatigue problems. Also
after his retirement he was still present at many national and
international meetings. And he continued to publish papers.
The variety of fatigue problems ‘‘tackled” by Walter Schütz is
large and as a result the number of his publications is also large.
Many papers were published in various journals and proceedings
of international symposia of different organizations, e.g. ICAF,
AGARD, ASTM, DVM). Some noteworthy publications are listed be-
low [1–9]. Walter was always considering the basic understanding
of fatigue in view of the significance for practical applications in
the industry and the behaviour of structures in service. Since he
had a sharp mind he often had his doubts about the possibility
to predict fatigue properties. Actually he understood that a high
accuracy of fatigue predictions is an illusory target. But at the same
time he was aware of much to be learned from laboratory research
to improve fatigue properties and how to design against fatigue. As
an example he investigated improvements of fatigue properties by
doi:10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2009.11.001
surface treatments, and on the other hand possibilities of adverse
corrosion effects on the material surfaces. Two other contributions
written in German as LBF documents are mentioned below. In Ref.
[8] Walter analyzed the effect of the mean stress on the fatigue
limit of different materials as shown by many experimental data.
In an other LBF report [9] Walter made observations on the fatigue
properties of riveted joints. Due to unexpectedly high endurances
he made observations on the deformation of the driven rivet head
which told him that the riveting squeeze force had a large effect on
the fatigue life. A unique observation at that time (1963).
Because Walter realized that fatigue of full-scale structures re-
quires experimental verifications he paid much attention to realis-
tic service load histories with random load sequences. He started
and contributed to several standardized service load histories to
be applied for fatigue research instead of constant-amplitude tests,
and also instead of program fatigue tests. Names of these standard-
ized service load histories are Falstaff, Helix–Felix, Wash, Wawesta
and Carlos for different types of dynamically loaded structures.
All people who have met Walter Schütz in person, or in techni-
cal discussions, or in social contacts, all were readily aware of his
characteristic way of participating in brainstorming conversations.
He was talking only when he had been meditating about the prob-
lem. But then eagerness to contribute, dedication to arrive at the
essences of problems, integrity of comments, they were character-
istic for him. In Walter’s perception fundamental understanding of
fatigue problems and fatigue experiments are essential for solving
practical fatigue problems. He was also keen in recognizing histor-
ical developments of the knowledge about fatigue of structures and
materials, and also on the various misconceptions which turned up
from time to time. He did not hesitate to pinpoint wrong ideas, but
in full honesty. History and philosophy were part of his life. Walter
 Obituary / International Journal of Fatigue 32 (2010) 788–789 789

was a good and reliable guide. We will keep his support and ded- [8] Schütz W. Viewpoints of material selection for fatigue loaded structures (in
German). Laboratorium für Betriebsfestigkeit LBF, Darmstadt, Report TB-80;
ication in mind.
1968.
[9] Schütz W. Fatigue strength of single shear light-metal riveted joints (in
References German). Laboratorium für Betriebsfestigkeit LBF, Darmstadt, Report F-47;
1963.
[1] Schütz W, Klätschke H, Hück M, Sonsino CM. Standardized load sequence for
offshore structures – WASH 1. Fatigue Fract Eng Mater Struct 1990;13(1):15–29. Jaap Schijve
[2] Schütz W. A history of fatigue. Eng Fract Mech 1996;5:263–300.
[3] W. Schütz, Corrosion fatigue. The forgotten factor in assessing durability. In:
Delft University of Technology,
Grandage JM, Jost GS, editors. Proceedings of 18th ICAF symposium, Melbourne, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering,
3–5 May 1995. EMAS; 1995, p. 1–51. Kluyverweg 1,
[4] Schütz W., Standardized stress–time histories: an overview. Development of
2629 HS Delft,
Fatigue Load Spectra, STP 1006, ASTM; 1989. p. 3–16.
[5] Schütz W., Fatigue life improvement of high-strength materials by shot The Netherlands
peening. In: First international conference on shot peening, Paris, 14–17 Tel.: +31 15 3695 194; fax: +31 15 278 1151
September 1981. Pergamon Press; 1981. p. 423–33. E-mail address: j.schijve@lr.tudelft.nl
[6] Schütz W. The prediction of fatigue life in the crack initiation and propagation
stages. A state of the art survey. Eng Fract Mech 1979;11:405–21.
[7] Schütz W. The fatigue life under three different load spectra - tests and Available online 28 November 2009
calculations. In: AGARD-CP-118, symposium on random load fatigue. Lyngby,
Denmark; 1972.