Infrared thermography has been used as a nondestructive evaluation (NDE) technique to detect flaws in structural components, playing an important role in manufacturing inspection, in-service inspection and maintenance programs. An investigation program was launched with the objective of presenting combinations of analytical, experimental and numerical methods to predict and monitor fatigue initiation and fatigue damage progression in equipment such as pressure vessels, tanks, piping and pipelines with dents or complex-shaped anomalies. The monitoring of fatigue initiation and propagation in the actual specimens used nondestructive inspection techniques such as thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA), three-dimensional digital image correlation (3D-DIC) and fiber optic Bragg strain gages (FBSG) to determine strains at fatigue hot spots locations. Strain fields determined from the experimental measurements and from the finite element method (FEM) were combined with the fatigue Coffin-Manson strain-life equation and the Miner s fatigue damage rule to predict fatigue life (N). Results from tested 3m long tubular (with nominal dimensions: 324mm external diameter and 6.35mm wall thickness) specimens containing complex-shaped dents were reported and fully analyzed. This work confirmed that infrared rapid fatigue assessment methods are practical and efficient tools that can provide a reliable, non-destructive and faster results about the fatigue behavior of materials. Good agreement among fatigue life estimations and actual fatigue lives of complex dent shapes in pipeline specimens can only be achieved if accurate measurements or numerical eterminations of the circumferential strains actuating at the dent hot-spots were coupled with suitable fatigue strain-life curves. Coupling an experimental technique for accurately determining dent shapes to a numerical strain analysis technique will lead to good hot-spot strain estimations to be combined with the strain-life fatigue curves. The present conclusions can be applied to other structures that may present dents such as tanks and pressure vessels.