Variation of stress intensity factor along the front of a 3D rectangular crack by using a singular integral equation method

In this paper a singular integral equation method is applied to calculate t he distribution of stress intensity factor along the crack front of a 3D re ctangular crack. The stress field induced by a body force doublet in an inf inite body is used as the fundamental solution. Then, the problem is formul ated as an integral equation with a singularity of the form of r(-3). In so lving the integral equation. the unknown functions of body force densities are approximated by the product of a polynomial and a fundamental density f unction, which expresses stress singularity along the crack front in an inf inite body. The calculation shows that the present method fives smooth vari ations of stress intensity factors along the crack front for various aspect ratios. The present method gives rapidly converging numerical results and highly satisfied boundary conditions throughout the crack boundary.