Methods for analysis of cracks in three-dimensional solids

Various methods used for determining stress-intensity factors for cracked three-dimensional bodies are reviewed. The review is limited to the determination of mode-I stress-intensity factors. Some exact solutions for cracks in infinite solids are presented, and various approximate methods that have been used for the solution of the boundary-value problem of finite solids with cracks are addressed. The techniques used to extract the stress-intensity factors from these solutions are considered, and various methods used to calculate the stress-intensity factors for through-the-thickness cracks, semielliptical surface cracks, and quarter-elliptical corner cracks at holes are compared for the case of remote tensile loading.