Fatigue propagation path of 3D plane cracks under mode I loading

The fatigue growth path of an arbitrary plane crack, loaded by some remote tensile uniform stress, is computed using a perturbation method derived from the three-dimensional weight-function theory of Rice (1985, 1989). First, the stress intensity factor and the weight function of the initial front are calculated. Then, the crack advance is determined by applying Pads' law. One advantage of the method is that only the meshing of the initial front is needed, allowing for the study of propagation on a large scale.