This research represents a continuation of extensive investigation of the effects of multiple defects in welded joint on their integrity 1-4. Up to this point, all of the research was focused on static loads and determining which defect combination is the least favourable one. Based on the previous results, it was determined that vertical plate misalignment was the most critical defect, as its presence would also result in a number of other stress concentrators in the welded joints. The next steps in analysing the exact ways in which defect combinations which include vertical misalignment affect the integrity of welds included, among others, analysing of the microstructure in welded joint regions, mainy focusing on the heat affected zone, where most critical locations in terms of stress were observed. Additionally, fatigue was included as one of the important factors which needs to be considered. The goal here was to determine how the presence of different defects affects the fatigue life of welded structures by developing representative numerical models using finite element method. It needs to be pointed out that this is the initial stage, which aims to develop prototypical models which can then be used for other materials and weld geometries
Sedmak et al. (Wed,) studied this question.