Fatigue is typically a governing limit state for maritime structures, and weld joints are the most critical locations. Various fatigue damage criteria have been developed involving either an intact or cracked geometry parameter, incorporating local or global information. In this thesis, the effective notch stress based total life fatigue damage criterion has been used in order to improve the accuracy of fatigue lifetime prediction and reduce the workload of engineers in the early design stage. First, the Battelle structural stress calculation procedure is clarified and examined with three models. A hot spot type A, B and C mesh convergence study are conducted. In order to quantify the influence of mesh quality, several ugly mesh models are tested with their good mesh counterparts. For validation purposes of the total life model, a large scale specimen fatigue test result has been used and the mesh quality investigations are included. The DNVGL based life time estimate is provided for the sake of comparison. Finally, several conclusions and recommendations are provided for future applications.