Further considerations in modified crack closure integral based computation of stress intensity factor in bem

This paper deals with modified crack closure integral based computation of stress intensity factors in a boundary element method for problems with mechanical loading remote from the crack edges. The modified crack closure integral technique has been coupled with the local smoothing scheme to obtain simple relations for energy release rates for linear, quadratic and quarter point elements around the crack tip. Stress intensity factors calculated through the proposed formulation and the displacement method for a number of examples are compared, wherever possible, with data available in the literature. The results based on the proposed scheme are more accurate than those obtained by the displacement method