Abstract: A method of determining the fatigue life of a welded structure, including the steps of: creating a 3D coarse mesh model of the welded structure to be analyzed; analyzing the coarse mesh model using an FEA model to generate FEA data; identifying a critical stress location on the coarse mesh model having a through thickness stress distribution, based on the FEA data; post processing the FEA data in the middle portion of the through thickness stress distribution while excluding the through thickness stress distribution near the edges of the identified critical stress location to determine a peak stress; and determining a fatigue life of the welded structure at the identified critical stress location, dependent on the determined peak stress.