A numerical procedure for the approximate WF solution of mode I SIFs in 3D geometries under arbitrary load

A numerical procedure was developed for the approximate weigth function (AWF) evaluation of reliable stress intensity factor (SIF) for part-through Mode I cracks for general load. Different from other WF procedures which require closed form reference SIFs, this procedure requires only limited number of discrete SIF solutions directly obtained from other numerical methods as reference SIFs to compute continuous SIFs as function of both the crack size and the location along the crack front. As an implement to the general numerical methods in the Damage and Safe Life analysis, this procedure substantially increases the value of numerical SIF results. The present procedure is relative simple, with most of basic relations being analytically soved, and therefore efficient in use. Several examples were presented to demonstrate the accuracy of this procedure.