A dielectric crack in a functionally graded piezoelectric layer

Considering the dielectric effects inside a crack, the problem of an electrically dielectric crack in a functionally graded piezoelectric layer is addressed in this paper. The energetically consistent crack-face boundary conditions are utilized to analyze the effects of a dielectric of crack interior. Applying the Fourier transform technique, the boundary-value problem is reduced to solving three coupling singular equations. Then a system of non-linear algebraic equations is obtained and the field intensity factors along with the energy release rate are given. Numerical results show the differences of the electric displacement inside a crack, the stress and electric displacement intensity factors and the energy release rate using the permeable, impermeable, semi-permeable and energetically consistent boundary conditions respectively. The effects of the material non-homogeneity, the applied electric field and the discharge field of crack interior on the electrostatic traction acting on the crack faces and the energy release rate are further studied through the energetically consistent boundary conditions.     

Permeable cracks between two dissimilar piezoelectric materials

An interfacial crack with electrically permeable surfaces between two dissimilar piezoelectric ceramics under electromechanical loading is investigated. An exact expression for singular stress and electric fields near the tip of a permeable crack between two dissimilar anisotropic piezoelectric media are obtained. The interfacial crack-tip fields are shown to consist of both an inverse square root singularity and a pair of oscillatory singularities. It is found that the singular fields near the permeable interfacial crack tip are uniquely characterized by the real valued stress intensity factors proposed in this paper. The energy release rate is obtained in terms of the stress intensity factors. The exact solution of stress and electric fields for a finite interfacial crack problem is also derived.     

含中心裂纹压电体的二维精确解

解析地研究了含中心裂纹的压电体，它在无穷远处承受机电载荷，并在裂面上满足由Parton和Kudryavtsev以及Hao和Shen提出的绝对电边界条件。在平面应变假设下，给出其二维精确解，并提供了机械应变能释放率和裂尖能量释放率等数值结果。考虑工业应用范围之内常用的远场载荷时，由绝对电边界条件得出的能量释放率表现出明显的非线性特征及载荷相关性，而不是完全与电场无关，这一结论与Xu和Rajapakse在较小载荷下得到的规律不同。     

Electrical nonlinear anti-plane shear crack in a functionally graded piezoelectric strip

The electrical nonlinear behavior of an anti-plane shear crack in a functionally graded piezoelectric strip is studied by using the strip saturation model within the framework of linear electroelasticity. The analysis is conducted on the electrically unified crack boundary condition with the introduction of the electric crack condition parameter that can describe all the electric crack boundary condition in accordance with the aspect ratio of an ellipsoidal crack and the permittivity inside the crack, in particular, including traditional permeable and impermeable crack boundary conditions. The resulting mixed boundary value problem is analysed and near tip field is obtained by using the integral transform techniques. Numerical results for the normalized five kinds of energy release rates under the small scale electric saturation condition are presented and compared to show the influences of the electric crack condition parameter with the variation of the ellipsoidal crack parameters, electric loads, functionally graded piezoelectric material gradation, crack length, electromechanical coupling coefficient, and crack location. It reveals that there are considerable differences between the results obtained from the traditional electric crack models and those obtained from the current unified crack model.     

Analysis method of planar cracks of arbitrary shape in the isotropic plane of a three-dimensional transversely isotropic magnetoelectroelastic medium

The hyper-singular boundary integral equation method of crack analysis in three-dimensional transversely isotropic magnetoelectroelastic media is proposed. Based on the fundamental solutions or Green’s functions of three-dimensional transversely isotropic magnetoelectroelastic media and the corresponding Somigliana identity, the boundary integral equations for a planar crack of arbitrary shape in the plane of isotropy are obtained in terms of the extended displacement discontinuities across crack faces. The extended displacement discontinuities include the displacement discontinuities, the electric potential discontinuity and the magnetic potential discontinuity, and correspondingly the extended tractions on crack face represent the conventional tractions, the electric displacement and the magnetic induction boundary values. The near crack tip fields and the intensity factors in terms of the extended displacement discontinuities are derived by boundary integral equation approach. A solution method is proposed by use of the analogy between the boundary integral equations of the magnetoelectroelastic media and the purely elastic materials. The influence of different electric and magnetic boundary conditions, i.e., electrically and magnetically impermeable and permeable conditions, electrically impermeable and magnetically permeable condition, and electrically permeable and magnetically impermeable condition, on the solutions is studied. The crack opening model is proposed to consider the real crack opening and the electric and magnetic fields in the crack cavity under combined mechanical-electric-magnetic loadings. An iteration approach is presented for the solution of the non-linear model. The exact solution is obtained for the case of uniformly applied loadings on the crack faces. Numerical results for a square crack under different electric and magnetic boundary conditions are displayed to demonstrate the proposed method.     

Asymptotic fields in the finite element analysis of electrically permeable interface cracks in piezoelectric bimaterials

Summary The interface crack problem for a piezoelectric bimaterial based on permeable conditions is studied numerically. To find the singular electromechanical field at the crack tip, an asymptotic solution is derived in connection with the conventional finite element method. For mechanical and electrical loads, the complex stress intensity factor for an interface crack is obtained. The influence of the applied loads on the electromechanical fields near the crack tip is also studied. For a particular case of a short crack with respect to the bimaterial size, the numerical results are compared with the exact analytical solutions, obtained for a piezoelectric bimaterial plane with an interface crack.One author (V.G.) gratefully acknowledges the support provided by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany.accepted for publication 7 June 2004     

A mode III crack in a piezoelectric semiconductor of crystals with 6 mm symmetry

A finite mode III crack in a piezoelectric semiconductor of 6 mm crystals is analyzed. Fourier transform is employed to reduce the mixed boundary value problem to a pair of dual-integral equations. Numerical solution of these equations yields coupled electromechanical fields, the intensity factor and the energy release rate near the crack tip. Numerical results are presented graphically to show the fracture behavior which is affected by the semiconduction.     

无网格与有限元的耦合在动态断裂研究中的应用

提出将无网格Galerkin法与有限元耦合的方法用于分析动态裂纹扩展问题,只在裂尖附近区域沿裂纹扩展方向布置无网格结点,而在其他区域采用一般的有限元,区域交界处的结点采用MLS方法插值,然后将求得的结点值再分配到有限单元的相关结点上,保证了无网格区域和有限元区域的交界处位移的连续。避免了网格的再生成,同时也克服了单纯使用无网格Galerkin法所带来的边界条件难处理及计算效率较低的缺点。数值算例显示这种方法是有效的。     

Finite element analyses of cracks in piezoelectric structures: a survey

Piezoelectric materials have widespread applications in modern technical areas such as mechatronics, smart structures or microsystem technology, where they serve as sensors or actuators. For the assessment of strength and reliability of piezoelectric structures under combined electrical and mechanical loading, the existence of cracklike defects plays an important role. Meanwhile, piezoelectric fracture mechanics has been established quite well, but its application to realistic crack configurations and loading situations in piezoelectric structures requires the use of numerical techniques as finite element methods (FEM) or boundary element methods (BEM). The aim of this paper is to review the state of the art of FEM to compute the coupled electromechanical boundary value problem of cracks in 2D and 3D piezoelectric structures under static and dynamic loading. In order to calculate the relevant fracture parameters very precisely and efficiently, the numerical treatment must account for the singularity of the mechanical and electrical fields at crack tips. The following specialized techniques are presented in detail (1) special singular crack tip elements, (2) determination of intensity factors K _I –K _IV from near tip fields, (3) modified crack closure integral, (4) computation of the electromechanical J-integral, and (5) exploitation of interaction integrals. Special emphasis is devoted to a realistic modeling of the dielectric medium inside the crack, leading to specific electric crack face boundary conditions. The accuracy, efficiency, and applicability of these techniques are examined by various example problems and discussed with respect to their advantages and drawbacks for practical applications.     

矩形压电体中反平面裂纹的电弹性场

基于线性压电理论,本文获得了含有中心反平面裂纹的矩形压电体中的奇异应力和电场。利用Fourier积分变换和Fourier正弦级数将电绝缘型裂纹问题化为对偶积分方程,并进一步归结为易于求解的第二类Fred-holm积分方程。获得了裂纹尖端应力、应变、电位移和电场的解析解,求得了裂纹尖端场的强度因子及能量释放率。分析了压电矩形体的几何尺寸对它们的影响。结果表明,对于电绝缘型裂纹,裂纹尖端附近的各个场变量都具有-1/2阶的奇异性,能量释放率与电荷载的方向及大小有关,并且有可能为负值。     

A boundary element application for mixed modeloading idealized sawtooth fracture surface

In this paper, a 2-D elastic-plastic BEM formulation predicting the reduced mode IIand the enhanced mode I stress intensity factors are presented. The dilatant boundary conditions (DBC) are assumed to be idealized uniform sawtooth crack surfaces and an effective Coulombsliding law. Three types of crack face boundary conditions, i.e. (1) BEM sawtooth model-elasticcenter crack tip; (2) BEM sawtooth model-plastic center crack tip; and (3) BEM sawtoothmodel-edge crack with asperity wear are presented. The model is developed to attempt todescribe experimentally observed non-monotonic, non-linear dependence of shear crack behavioron applied shear stress, superimposed tensile stress, and crack length. The asperity sliding isgoverned by Coulombs law of friction applied on the inclined asperity surface which hascoefficient of friction μ. The traction and displacement Greens functions which derive fromNaviers equations are obtained as well as the governing boundary integral equations for an infiniteelastic medium. Accuracy test is performed by comparison stress intensity factors of the BEMmodel with analytical solutions of the elastic center crack tip. The numerical results show thepotential application of the BEM model to investigate the effect of mixed mode loading problemswith various boundary conditions and physical interactions.     

Energy release rate of small cracks in hyperelastic materials

The energy release rate of a small crack in an infinite hyperelastic medium, and subjected to large strain multiaxial loading conditions, is derived by considering the balance of configurational stresses acting on two planes: one cutting the center of the crack face, and the other at an infinite distance in front of the crack tip. The analysis establishes that the energy release rate of a small crack is always proportional to the size of the crack, irrespective of the loading conditions and the crack orientation. The balance of configurational stresses is illustrated for several benchmark cases including simple extension, pure shear and equibiaxial extension, and for perpendicular and inclined cracks.     

Closed form solution for two unequal collinear semi-permeable straight cracks in a piezoelectric media

The problem of two unequal collinear straight cracks weakening a poled transversely isotropic piezoelectric ceramic is addressed under semi-permeable electric boundary conditions on the crack faces. The plate has been subjected to combined in-plane normal(to the faces of the cracks) mechanical and electric loads. Problem is formulated employing Stroh formalism and solved using complex variable technique. The elastic field, electric field and energy release rate are obtained in closed analytic form. A case study is presented for poled PZT-5H cracked plate to study the effect of prescribed mechanical load, electric load, inter-crack distance and crack lengths on crack arrest parameters stress intensity factor (SIF), electric displacement intensity factor (EDIF) and mechanical and total energy release rates (ERR). Moreover a comparative study is done of impermeable and semi-permeable crack face boundary conditions on SIF, EDIF and ERR, and results obtained is presented graphically. It is observed that the effect of dielectric medium in the crack gap cannot be ignored.     

Effect of electric boundary conditions on crack propagation in ferroelectric ceramics

In this paper, the effect of electric boundary conditions on Mode I crack propagation in ferroelectric ceramics is studied by using both linear and nonlinear piezoelectric fracture mechanics. In linear analysis, impermeable cracks under open circuit and short circuit are analyzed using the Stroh formalism and a rescaling method. It is shown that the energy release rate in short circuit is larger than that in open circuit. In nonlinear analysis, permeable crack conditions are used and the nonlinear effect of domain switching near a crack tip is considered using an energy-based switching criterion proposed by Hwang et al.（Acta Metal. Mater.,1995）. In open circuit, a large depolarization field induced by domain switching makes switching much more diffcult than that in short circuit. Analysis shows that the energy release rate in short circuit is still larger than that in open circuit, and is also larger than the linear result. Consequently,whether using linear or nonlinear fracture analysis, a crack is found easier to propagate in short circuit than in open circuit, which is consistent with the experimental observations of Kounga Njiwa et al.（Eng. Fract. Mech., 2006）.     

Energy density theory formulation and interpretation of cracking behavior for piezoelectric ceramics

Any attempt made to separate energy into electrical and mechanical parts may lead to inconsistencies as they do not necessarily decouple. This is illustrated by application of the energy density function in the linear theory of piezoelasticity. By assuming that a critical energy density function prevails at the onset of crack initiation, it is possible to establish the relative size of an inner and outer damage zone around the crack tip; they correspond to the ligaments at failure caused by pure electric field and pure mechanical load. On physical grounds, the relative size of these zones must depend on the relative magnitude of the mechanical and electrical load. Hence, they can vary in size depending on the electromechanical material and damage resistance properties. Numerical results are obtained for the PZT-4, PZT-5H, and P-7 piezoelectric ceramics. These two ligaments for the two damage zones may coincide for appropriate values of the applied electrical field and mechanical load.Explicit expression of the energy density factor S is derived showing the mixed mode electromechanical coupling effects. The factor S can increase or decrease depending on the direction of the applied electric field with reference to the poling direction. This is in contrast to the result obtained from the energy release rate quantity, which remains unchanged for electric field in the direction of poling or against it.     

A mixed electric boundary value problem for a two-dimensional piezoelectric crack

In this paper, a mixed electric boundary value problem for a two-dimensional piezoelectric crack problem is presented, in the sense that the crack face is partly conducting and partly impermeable. By the analytical continuation method, the unknown electric charge distributions on the upper and lower conducting crack faces are reduced to two decoupled singular integral equations and then these two equations are converted into algebraic equations to find the full field solution. Though the results suggest that the stress intensity factors at the crack tip are identical to those of conventional piezoelectric materials, but the electric field and electric displacement are related to the electric boundary conditions on the crack faces. The electric field and electric displacement are singular not only at crack tips but also at the junctures between the impermeable part and conducting parts. Numerical results for the variations of the electric field, electric displacement field and J-integral with respect to the normalized impermeable crack length are shown. Some discussions for the energy release rate and the J-integral are made.     

Theoretical model of crack branching in magnetoelectric thermoelastic materials

Thermomagnetoelectroelastic crack branching of magnetoelectro thermoelastic materials is theoretically investigated based on Stroh formalism and continuous distribution of dislocation approach. The crack face boundary condition is assumed to be fully thermally, electrically and magnetically impermeable. Explicit Green’s functions for the interaction of a crack and a thermomagnetoelectroelastic dislocation (i.e., a thermal dislocation, a mechanical dislocation, an electric dipole and a magnetic dipole located at a same point) are presented. The problem is reduced to two sets of coupled singular integral equations with the thermal dislocation and magnetoelectroelastic dislocation densities along the branched crack line as the unknown variables. As a result, the formulations for the stress, electric displacement and magnetic induction intensity factors and energy release rate at the branched crack tip are expressed in terms of the dislocation density functions and the branch angle. Numerical results are presented to study the effect of applied thermal flux, electric field and magnetic field on the crack propagation path by using the maximum energy release rate criterion.     

Crack energy density of a piezoelectric material under general electromechanical loading

Crack energy density is considered and used as a possible fracture parameter in piezoelectricity under arbitrary electromechanical remote loads. The closed-form solution of a crack in a piezoelectric infinite plate subjected to general static electromechanical loading is obtained through a method alternative to the more common Stroh’s formalism. This analytical method, which is based on the spectral theorem of linear algebra, involves a transformation of similarity induced by the fundamental matrix in order to express the equations governing the problem in terms of complex potentials. The application of the mechanical boundary condition of stress-free crack and of one of the three considered electric boundary conditions (impermeable, permeable or semipermeable) leads then to the formulation of a Hilbert problem whose solution yields the stress and displacement fields. The crack energy density factors for mixed mode are then calculated under different mechanical and electrical loadings, as well as under different electric boundary conditions. The non-singular terms of the stress expressions are retained as well. The definition of the minimum energy density fracture criterion, as proposed by Sih, is given, and the influence of load biaxiality and positive or negative applied electric field on the criterion results is analyzed. The prediction of the incipient branching angle as from the energy density approach is also compared to that arising from the maximum circumferential stress theory for a mixed mode loading condition. Numerical results and graphs are presented and discussed for a PZT-4 piezoelectric ceramic.     

Strip-coalesced interior zone model for two unequal collinear cracks weakening piezoelectric media

In this paper, a mathematical strip-saturation model is proposed for a poled transversely isotropic piezoelectric plate weakened by two impermeable unequal-collinear hairline straight cracks. Remotely applied in-plane unidirectional electromechanical loads open the cracks in mode-I such that the saturation zone developed at the interior tips of cracks gets coalesced. The developed saturation zones are arrested by distributing over their rims in-plane normal cohesive electrical displacement. The problem is solved using the Stroh formalism and the complex variable technique. The expressions are derived for the stress intensity factors （SIFs）, the lengths of the saturation zones developed, the crack opening displacement （COD）, and the energy release rate. An illustrative numerical case study is presented for the poled PZT-5H ceramic to investigate the effect of prescribed electromechanical loads on parameters affecting crack arrest. Also, the effect of different lengths of cracks on the SIFs and the local energy release rate （LERR） has been studied. The results obtained are graphically presented and analyzed.     

Comparison of energy release rate and energy density criteria for a piezoelectric layered composite with a crack normal to interface

A critical comparison of the energy release rate and energy density criteria is made using the example of a piezoelectric layer bonded between two half-spaces of a different elastic solid containing a crack normal to the interfaces. Numerical values of stress intensity factor, energy release rate and energy density factor are presented to exhibit electroelastic interactions. Considered are the exact (permeable) and impermeable crack models. The energy release rate criterion led to negative values which are unphysical. This is consistent with previously published results that seem to contradict with experimental observation related to crack growth enhancement and retardation. The energy density factor always remains positive. This shows that a knowledge of the stress intensity factors alone is not sufficient to explain the behavior of fracture in piezoelectric materials.