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Ability of a structure to withstand defects safely until it can be repaired

In engineering, damage tolerance is a property of a structure relating to its ability to sustain defects safely until repair can be effected. The approach to engineering design to account for damage tolerance is based on the assumption that flaws can exist in any structure and such flaws propagate with usage. This approach is commonly used in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, and civil engineering to manage the extension of cracks in structure through the application of the principles of fracture mechanics. A structure is considered to be damage tolerant if a maintenance program has been implemented that will result in the detection and repair of accidental damage, corrosion and fatigue cracking before such damage reduces the residual strength of the structure below an acceptable limit.

Structures upon which human life depends have long been recognized as needing an element of fail safety. When describing his flying machine, Leonardo da Vinci noted that "In constructing wings one should make one chord to bear the strain and a looser one in the same position so that if one breaks under the strain, the other is in the position to serve the same function." Prior to the 1970s, the prevailing engineering philosophy of aircraft structures was to ensure that airworthiness was maintained with a single part broken, a redundancy requirement known as fail safety. However, advances in fracture mechanics, along with infamous catastrophic fatigue failures such as those in the de Havilland Comet prompted a change in requirements for aircraft. It was discovered that a phenomenon known as multiple site damage could cause many small cracks in the structure, which grow slowly by themselves, to join one another over time, creating a much larger crack, and significantly reducing the expected time until failure

Not all structure must demonstrate detectable crack propagation to ensure safety of operation. Some structures operate under the safe life design principle, where an extremely low level of risk is accepted through a combination of testing and analysis that the part will never form a detectable crack due to fatigue during the service life of the part. This is achieved through a significant reduction of stresses below the typical fatigue capability of the part. Safe life structures are employed when the cost or infeasibility of inspections outweighs the weight penalty and development costs associated with safe life structures.