| Summary: | This paper aims to add impetus to understanding of worsening phenomena and prevention of their consequences. The introductory notes outline the uncertainty, the empirical character and the subjective meaning of the term “worsening”. The underlying hypothesis takes up the idea of general cause and effect relations in order to reveal the cause and effect interaction concept of worsening. The concept of worsening is analytically modeled as an accumulation of effects in permanent interaction with causes. The mathematical formulation of the worsening concept is applied to examples of common engineering problems of material plasticity, fatigue and corrosion.
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