Abstract. The paper refers to development of relationship between fatigue life and energy dissipated during process of fatigue. A theory about treating technical object as operational system, with limited potential for destruction was utilized. On the base of experiments, it was stated, that dissipated energy, which is stored in the object as a result of various kinds of wear processes, including fatigue can be such parameter. Amount of this energy was determined experimentally. It was found, that "consumption" of this energy depends on the value of the damping coefficient of the test object and the parameters of the oscillatory motion. Knowing the amount of this energy and accepting it as a "destruction capacity", it is possible to predict the fatigue life of an object under a given load.