I am working on a project regarding the crack growth analysis of the pelton runner with the crack being at it's root.

APDL tutorials provide solution to 2D examples and i'm not sure how should i proceed with the model i have.

Also few people suggested me to use abaqus instead of APDL, should i switch to abaqus.

I've attached the picture of the pelton bucket runner. And the crack initiates at the root where the stress concentration is maximum.