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Thin-rim gears with an initial crack in the tooth root, caused by variousreasons, are dealt with in this paper. By standard procedures, it is impossible to gain avery good insight into the conditions appearing at the formation of initial damage.Bearing this in mind, a numerical model has been elaborated. The boundary elementmethod and the theory of linear-elastic fracture mechanics have been used for crackgrowth simulation. By means of three dimensional (3-D) numerical analysis of gearwith initial crack in tooth root, the influence of a different position of a web (in themiddle and at the edge of a rim) upon the direction of crack propagation and theremaining service life is researched. The results of the research work offer a moreoptimal concept of gear design and dimensions.