Professor Erkki Niemi is Emeritus Professor of Steel Structures in Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland.Professor Dr-Ing. Wolfgang Fricke is Head of the Institute for Ship Structural Design and Analysis at Hamburg University of Technology, Germany.Stephen J. Maddox is a Consultant with The Welding Institute (TWI) in the UK and is also Visiting Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde, UK.