`U.S. Navy titanium creep-fatigue research (1982 Soviet discovery)`

US Naval Research Lab had characterized titanium creep-fatigue at room temperature: under high compressive stress, fatigue cracks initiate readily. In 1982 the US learned the Soviets had not solved the problem either — they had built the Alpha subs without a solution.

That was good, but the even better thing is, I remember going to a meeting and they said, how do the Soviets solve the creep-fatigue interaction? It turns out titanium will creep and fatigue at room temperature or below. And what's the temperature of the ocean? It's sort of room temperature or below. At the time, the Navy had a big group doing development of titanium and I was being funded by the Office of Naval Research, so we were talking. And they said, how'd they solve the fatigue interaction? The U.S. Naval Research Lab had studied the creep and fatigue behavior at room temperature of titanium: if you have it under a big compressive stress, it would fatigue very readily. That's what they call the creep-fatigue interaction. I said, I don't know.