A comparison of currently available codes for assessment of fatigue crack growth, including ASME (America Society of Mechanical Engineers) SEC. XI, FKM (Forchungskuratorium Maschinenbau) guideline, WES (Japan Welding Engineering Society) 2805, BS7910 and JSME (The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers), was carried out by paying attention to the suitability of application and the easiness to obtain the parameters, based on fatigue crack growth data of Cr-Ni-Mo-V steel welded joints. Results showed that fatigue crack growth curves provided by the FKM or WES were good choice when few inputs were at hand while the curves in the BS7910, JSME and ASME were recommended for precise estimation. It was indicated that the assessment of welded joints solely by fatigue crack growth behavior at base metal part and the assessment of fatigue crack growth for the aged condition by as-received one both resulted in non-conservativeness, albeit dependent on the range of stress ratios, R. A new bilinear form of fatigue crack growth model independent of R was developed based on transition point occurred in the near-threshold regime. This constituted the bilinear approach to fatigue assessment, and thus contributed to the optimization of fatigue assessment in the near-threshold regime.
