As a conservative assumption, the integration has been performed
considering the most critical sequence of cycles, from lowest stress
variations to the largest stress ones. In fact this consideration is
highly conservative, given that only the highest stress variation
would produce crack propagation for the considered initial
crack sizes. However, it was decided to proceed thus given the
uncertainty concerning the dimensions of the existing lack of
penetration defects (the exhaustive detection of the defects and
the determination of their dimensions was performed after the
analysis presented here) and, in particular, given the critical
consequences (economic losses, safety risks . . . ) that premature
failures would have for the owner.