An alternating technique for evaluating weight functions for 3‐D surface flaws in finite solid bodies

An efficient method, based on the Schwarz–Neumann alternating technique, is presented for computing weight functions of a general solid (3‐D as well as 2‐D), with embedded or surface‐flaw configurations. The total rate of change of the crack‐opening displacements, due to simple perturbations of crack‐dimension characteristics, is conveniently decomposed into the infinite‐domain and boundary‐correction parts. The former is determined from available analytical solutions of ideal‐shaped cracks, whereas the latter is computed numerically by imposing nil boundary‐traction requirements for the displacement field corresponding to the weight functions. Numerical examples, with solutions for 3‐D weighted‐average and local stress intensity factors, indicate that the proposed method is very accurate and efficient.