Application of boundary-integral methods to fracture-mechanics problems

Boundary-element-method (BEM) variants used in fracture mechanics are briefly characterized and compared on the basis of computations for a two-dimensional elastostatic problem, the CT specimen. Methods considered include the direct BEM, the direct BEM with adapted fundamental solution (Snyder and Cruse, 1975), the indirect BEM using the potential theory of Kupradze (1963), and the displacement-discontinuity method (Crouch, 1976). The accuracy of the BEMs and their computation-time advantage over finite-element methods for these problems are illustrated with a graph.