Round-Robin on Local Stress Determination and Fatigue Assessment of Load-Carrying Fillet-Welded Joints

The fatigue assessment of welded ship structures includes high uncertainties. One major source of uncertainty is the determination of relevant local stresses based on the structural hot-spot or notch stress approach. To quantify the uncertainties and to improve the analysis guidelines, roundrobin studies were performed within the MARSTRUCT project. One recent study concerned loadcarrying fillet welds which are treated in different ways in structural stress approaches. In total, five partners participated in the work. Two structural configurations at 12 mm thick plates were analysed, i.e., double-sided lap-joints and doubler plates, each with two different weld throat thicknesses (2.5 mm and 7 mm). After shortly describing the fatigue assessment approaches, the models of the partners and their results are described in more detail. Differences in the results are identified and conclusions drawn with respect to modelling guidelines and typical scatter of computed fatigue lives.