Fast multipole method (FMM) has been developed as a technique to reduce the
computational cost and memory requirements in solving large scale problems
. This paper discusses an application of the new version of FMM to three-di
mensional boundary integral equation method (BIEM) for crack problems for t
he Laplace equation. The boundary integral equation is discretised with col
location method. The resulting algebraic equation is solved with generalise
d minimum residual method (GMRES). The numerical results show that the new
version of FMM is more efficient than the original FMM. (C) 2001 Elsevier S
cience Ltd. All rights reserved.