Improvement of Slice Synthesis Methodology to Estimate Stress Intensity Factor of an Embedded Crack in a finite body

The limit of applicability of the former published method for an embedded cackin a finite body is investigated by comparing with the conventional stress intensityfactor formula. The error of estimated stress intensity factors by published slicesynthesis methodology increases for a decreasing distance of the crack tip fromthe back surface of the body. The reason is considered that the former publishedslice synthesis methodology conform the crack opening behavior of an embeddedcrack obtained analytical solution in an infinite cracked body to the ones obtainedby the slice synthesis methodology.The improved slice synthesis methodology to increase accuracy of stress intensityfactor solutions in a finite body is proposed by incorporating a correctioncoefficient into the formulation.The validity of improved slice synthesis methodology is confirmed by comparingthe stress intensity factor solutions with ones by finite element analyses.