Summary: This paper presents a genetic algorithm based procedure for automatic identification of crack profiles. In the procedure geometric modeling technique is applied to incorporate crack(s) into the structure under evaluation and a geometric model is generated. The geometric model is then used to generate finite element mesh. In solving forward problems, finite element meshes are adapted based on error estimation to improve accuracy in computed structural responses. Numerical results show that error from solving forward problems can largely slow down GA convergence and significantly affect the accuracy of estimated crack parameters. Mesh adaptation can effectively reduce the error, thus speeding up the convergence and improving accuracy.