Abstract
It is well known that boundary integral formulations degenerate for a body containing flat cracks. The methods used to analyse fracture problems include multi-region approaches and Green's function formulations. Recently a displacement discontinuity method has also been used to solve fracture problems. In this method the displacement discontinuity along the crack surface is related to the applied traction through an integral equation. The technique adapted for solving this equation requires that the gradient of the displacement discontinuity be continuous across the element boundaries. This can be ensured only if the gradients of the displacement discontinuity is also interpolated in addition to the displacement discontinuities. For two dimensional problems this would result in doubling the number of nodal variables. In the proposed method the integral equation relating the displacement discontinuities to the applied traction is solved directly by using the Hadamard's principle. This method requires only that the points at which the stresses are evaluated be distinct from the element nodes. This technique is found to yield satisfactory results for various problems including multi-cracks, non-uniform loading and both infinite space and half space problems.