Surface cracking of a piezoelectric strip bonded to an elastic substrate (Mode I crack problem)

Summary A piezoelectric material layer bonded to an elastic substrate is investigated. The piezoelectric layer contains an edge crack that is perpendicular to the surface of medium. The poling axis of the piezoelectric layer is parallel to its edge. The elastic layer can be an ideal insulator or an ideal conductor. The Fourier transform technique is used to reduce the problem to a solution of singular integral equations. Both impermeable crack and permeable crack assumptions are considered. Stress and electric displacement intensity factors are investigated for different dimensions of the medium. A double-edge cracked symmetric piezoelectric laminate under symmetric electro-mechanical load is also investigated. BLW would like to thank the National Science Foundation of China (#10102004) and the City University of Hong Kong for the support of this work (DAG #7100219). YGS also thanks the Multidiscipline Scientific Research Foundation Project (HIT. MD 2001. 39) of the Harbin Institute of Technology and the SRF for ROCS, SEM.