Early studies of fatigue of materials in the mid-19th century led to the development of fatigue design methods and, for example, to the definition of the fundamental concept of conventional fatigue limit (i.e. infinite life). The number of cycles applied, particularly in experimental studies, was limited to tens of millions mainly for technical reasons and refered as the High Cycle Fatigue domain (HCF). One century later, some researchers conducted studies to explore higher cycle numbers, up to a billion or more called the Very High Cycle Fatigue domain (VHCF). These studies showed that the design methods used in the HCF regime could not guarantee safety of the structures in the VHCF regime. Furthermore, the physical mechanisms involved were different from those more commonly known in the HCF domain. Since then, experimental techniques have been developed and become more widespread, and more and more research teams around the world have focused their research on VHCF.

In the 1990s, the VHCF conferences were created. These are international events organized every three years, bringing together the scientific community working on VHCF. The first VHCF congress was held in 1998 at the CNAM in Paris. Since then, the VHCF congresses have been organized by several countries on different continents:

Twenty nine years after Claude Bathias organized the first VHCF congress at the CNAM in Paris, it is a pleasure for us to organize the next VHCF congress in Paris in April 2027 at the Parisian campus of Arts et Métiers Institute of Technology (ENSAM).