This book is concerned with the numerical solution of crack problems. The techniques to be developed are particularly appropriate when cracks are relatively short, and are growing in the neighbourhood of some stress raising feature, causing a relatively steep stress gradient. It is therefore practicable to represent the geometry in an idealised way, so that a precise solution may be obtained. This contrasts with, say, the finite element method in which the geometry is modelled exactly, but the subsequent solution is approximate, and computationally more taxing. The family of techniques...

Failures of many mechanical components in service result from fatigue. The cracks which grow may either originate from some pre-existing macroscopic defect, or, if the component is of high integrity but highly stressed, a region of localized stress concentration. In turn, such concentrators may be caused by some minute defect, such as a tiny inclusion, or inadvertent machining damage. Another source of surface damage which may exist between notionally 'bonded' components is associated with minute relative motion along the interface, brought about usually be cyclic tangential loading. Such...

This book describes a family of state-of-the-art numerical and semi-analytical techniques for determining stress intensity factors for cracks; the quantities which determine and control the fatigue life of engineering components. Fatigue problems are dominated by behaviour of the crack when it is short, and in the neighbourhood of the source of nucleation, as this is where the majority of the life is used up. A knowledge of crack-tip stress intensity factors in this regime is paramount. The techniques described in this book are very efficient methods of determining stress intensity factors...