A new method of analyzing surface cracks

The authors have developed a new line-spring boundary element method in the present paper, which combines the advantage of the line-spring model with that of the boundary element method. This method reduces the three-dimension problem of the surface cracks into a quasi-one-dimension problem and can be used to analyze the surface cracked plate under various loading conditions. In this paper theoretical analyses and numerical verifications are carried out. The calculated results are reported, which indicate that the present method is efficient and can be used to analyze the surface crack problem on a personal computer.