Abstract
Welding is used not only for the shipbuilding, but also for the repairing of ships. While repairing of ships, it is inevitable to weld new materials with degraded materials. In this case, it is predicted that the strength of both the sections is not identical each other. In this study, the respective welded joints in terms of mechanical properties such as microstructure, mechanical strength and fatigue crack propagation, with the component obtained from the barge used for a long-term period, were analyzed. It was found that the material degradation had a significant effect on the welded joints. The fatigue crack propagation in welded sections showed a big difference. The rate of fatigue crack growth of degraded material for both heat affected zone and parent metal was faster than that of new material. By contrast, the result from identical materials showed that the rate of fatigue crack growth of the heat-affected zone was slower than that of parent metal.