Efficient prediction of crack initiation from arbitrary 2D notches

•Predicting crack initiation from notches using the Coupled Criterion.•Efficient implementation utilizing meta-modeling, scaling laws, and superposition.•Energy release rate is computed using boundary relaxation in a submodel-like model.•Computing one position takes 0.66 s (this method) instead of 2:50 min (full model).•The method is easily applicable to arbitrary notches and 2D load cases.