Damage analysis and fracture criteria for piezoelectric ceramics

Both the mechanical and the electrical damages are introduced to study fracture mechanics of piezoelectric ceramics in this paper. Two kinds of piezoelectric fracture criteria are proposed by using the damage theory combined with the well-known piezoelectric fracture experiments of Park and Sun [Fracture criteria of piezoelectric ceramics, J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 78 (1995) 1475-1480]. One is based on a critical state of the mechanical damage and the other on a critical value of a proper linear combination of both the mechanical and the electrical damage variables. It is found that the fracture load predicted, which takes the mechanical damage into account only (mode 1), has greater deviation than predicted result by considering a proper linear combination of the mechanical and the electrical damages (mode 2). And the fracture criterion corresponding to mode 2 presented is shown to be superior to mode 1. It is also demonstrated that the mechanical damage has greater effect on fracture than the electrical damage.     

Analysis of the Dynamic Stability of Electrical Graded Piezoelectric Circular Cylindrical Shells

I. INTRODUCTION In recent years, piezoelectric materials have been widely used as sensors and actuators in the areaof smart structures, and shell-type piezoelectric smart structures have become the focus of research.Various analytical and ?nite element models for piezoelectric shells have been developed[1??3]. Inaddition, a series of exact studies on the bending and buckling of piezoelectric circular cylindrical shellhave been presented by Chen et al.[4??7]. Recently, the use of functi…     

Fracture behaviors of piezoelectric materials

Theoretical analyses and experimental observations of the failure and fracture behaviors of piezoelectric materials are presented. The theoretical analyses are based on the Stroh formalism. A strip dielectric breakdown model is proposed to estimate the effect of electrical non-linearity on the piezoelectric fracture of electrically insulated cracks. The reviewed experiments include the indentation fracture test, the bending test on smooth samples, the fracture test on pre-notched or pre-cracked samples, the environment-assisted fracture test, etc. For electrically insulated cracks, the experimental results show a complicated fracture behavior under combined electrical and mechanical loading. Fracture data are greatly scattered when a static electric field is applied. For electrically conducting cracks, the experimental results demonstrate that static electric fields can fracture poled and depoled lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics. A charge-free zone model is introduced to understand the failure behavior of conducting cracks in the depoled lead zirconate titanate ceramics under electrical and/or mechanical loading. These theoretical and experimental results indicate that fracture mechanics concepts are useful in the study of the failure behaviors of piezoelectric materials.     

Effects of static electric field on the fracture behavior of piezoelectric ceramics

The paper gives an overview on experimental observations of the failure behavior of electrically insulating and conducting cracks in piezoelectric ceramics. The experiments include the indentation fracture test, the bending test on smooth samples, and the fracture test on pre-notched (or pre-cracked) compact tension samples. For electrically insulating cracks, the experimental results show a complicated fracture behavior under electrical and mechanical loading. Fracture data are much scattered when a static electric field is applied. A statistically based fracture criterion is required. For electrically conducting cracks, the experimental results demonstrate that static electric fields can fracture poled and depoled lead zirconate titanate ceramics and that the concepts of fracture mechanics can be used to measure the electrical fracture toughness. Furthermore, the electrical fracture toughness is much higher than the mechanical fracture toughness. The highly electrical fracture toughness arises from the greater energy dissipation around the conductive crack tip under purely electric loading, which is impossible under mechanical loading in the brittle ceramics. The project supported by an RGC grant from the Research Grant Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China     

Stress Analysis And Geometrical Configuration Selection for Multilayer Piezoelectric Displacement Actuator

Multilayer piezoelectric ceramic displacement actuators are susceptible to cracking in the region near the edge of the internal electrode, which may cause system damage or failure. In this paper, the stress distribution of a multilayer piezoelectric composite is investigated in a working environment and the optimized geometrical con?guration of the piezoelectric layer is obtained. The stress distribution in the structure and the stress concentration near the edge of th…     

Theoretical model of piezoelectric fibre pull-out

A theoretical model of a single piezoelectric fibre pull-out is developed to study the interaction between fibre deformation, pull-out stress and corresponding electrical field. Computer simulation of the stress–displacement curve of the fibre pull-out process is presented. Numerical examples show that the piezoelectric fibre pull-out behaviour can be both described and affected by its electrical field. Therefore, the interactions between the mechanical and electric fields of the fibre/matrix system can be employed to monitor and control the fracture behaviour of active fibre composites.     

压电介质损伤、断裂力学研究的现状

压电介质的损伤与断裂力学是现代固体力学的重要课题．本文简要地综述了压电介质损伤与断裂力学研究的现状,集中讨论了：（１）裂纹面电边界条件的不同模型及其求解的结果;（２）宏观连续力学与细观力学用于压电介质的损伤与断裂的静力学分析;（３）压电介质动态断裂分析的某些新结果．文末,指出了今后在压电介质损伤与断裂研究的某些有吸引力的研究方向     

Fracture prediction for piezoelectric ceramics based on the electric field saturation concept

The electrical field saturation model is applied to the fracture prediction of piezoelectric materials containing electrically impermeable cracks. This model is analogously similar to the electric displacement saturation model that available in the literature. An electrical field saturation strip near the crack front is introduced in the analytical model. The stress intensity factor K and the energy release rate G are obtained in closed-form. It is found that fracture predictions based on K and G criteria are identical. Fracture predictions based on the electric field saturation model and the electric displacement model are also found to be the same.     

压电薄板切口尖端前沿力电损伤场分析

基于Yang等建立的三维各向异性压电损伤本构模型,给出了广义平面应力压电损伤问题的本构方程和有限元平衡方程,运用有限元方法分析了张开角和深度对切口前沿力电损伤分布的影响规律。结果表明,张开角对力损伤的影响较小,并且几乎不改变力电损伤的区域尺寸,但是深度对力电损伤的大小和区域尺寸都有很大的影响。     

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.     

Crack energy density in arbitrary direction for piezoelectrics and its characteristic features in electromechanical mixed mode crack

The concepts of crack energy density (CED) and its derivatives in arbitrary direction were established for piezoelectric material and, keeping their application to mixed mode fracture in mind, the characteristic features of them as fracture parameters were investigated based on the approximate equations for CED and its derivatives. That is, CED and its derivatives in arbitrary direction are defined first and separation into their each mode contribution is made. Subsequently, path independent integral expressions of them are derived, and then using them, approximate equations of each mode contribution of CED are obtained concretely for the case where linear singular solution is known. The resulting equations are then used to investigate the effects of electric field and electrical boundary condition on CED and its derivatives. An infinite piezoelectric plane with a crack inclined with respect to the poling direction is considered as a numerical example. Mode I contribution of mechanical CED is mainly employed as a possible fracture parameter for the study and it was shown that applied electric field significantly influences on fracture parameters especially for the impermeable crack perpendicular to the poling direction. The effect of electric field has the tendency to decrease as crack inclination angle increases. It was also found that, even for the impermeable crack perpendicular to the poling direction, crack propagation could be deviated from self-similar direction under a strong negative electric field, and this fact is qualitatively consistent with an existing experimental observation. For the ideally sharp crack with no width, impermeable and Hao and Shen type boundary conditions are admissible showing qualitative agreement with experimental results, but exact boundary condition is not suitable and finally consistent with permeable boundary condition.     

Effects of electric field on crack growth for a penny-shaped dielectric crack in a piezoelectric layer

The assumptions of impermeable and permeable cracks give rise to significant errors in determining electro-elastic behavior of a cracked piezoelectric material. The former simply imposes that the permittivity or electric displacement of the crack interior vanishes, and the latter neglects also the effects of the dielectric of an opening crack interior. Considering the presence of the dielectric of an opening crack interior and the permeability of the crack surfaces for electric field, this paper analyzes electro-elastic behavior induced by a penny-shaped dielectric crack in a piezoelectric ceramic layer. In the cases of prescribed displacement or prescribed stress at the layer surfaces, the Hankel transform technique is employed to reduce the problem to Fredholm integral equations with a parameter dependent nonlinearly on the unknown functions. For an infinite piezoelectric space, a closed-form solution can be derived explicitly, while for a piezoelectric layer, an iterative technique is suggested to solve the resulting nonlinear equations. Field intensity factors are obtained in terms of the solution of the equations. Numerical results of the crack opening displacement intensity factors are presented for a cracked PZT-5H layer and the effect of applied electric field on crack growth are examined for both cases. The results indicate that the fracture toughness of a piezoelectric ceramic is affected by the direction of applied electric fields, dependent on the elastic boundary conditions.     

Fracture mechanics analysis of a composite piezoelectric strip with an internal semi-infinite electrode

IA piezoelectric strip with semi-infinite electrode is investigated. Two combinations of mechanical–electrical loadings are considered. They consist of the anti-plane deformation with in-plane electrical field and the in-plane electroelastic field. Based on the Fourier transform and the Wiener–Hopf technique, the electroelastic local stress fields are found to exhibit the square root singularity near the electrode tip. The energy density factor criterion is applied to examine the fracture behavior near the electrode tip.     

Coupled refined layerwise theory for dynamic free and forced response of piezoelectric laminated composite and sandwich beams

This work extends a previously presented coupled refined layerwise theory to dynamic analysis of piezoelectric laminated composite and sandwich beams. Contrary to most of the available theories, all the kinematic and stress boundary conditions are satisfied at the interfaces of the piezoelectric layers with the non-zero longitudinal electric field. Moreover, both electrical transverse normal strains and transverse flexibility are taken into account for the first time in the present theory. In the presented formulation a high-order polynomial, an exponential expression and a layerwise term containing the electric field are included in the describing expression of the in-plane displacement of the beam. For the transverse displacement, the coupled refined model uses a combination of continuous piecewise fourth-order polynomials with a layerwise representation of electrical unknowns. The electric field is also approximated as linear across the thickness direction of piezoelectric layers. One of advantages of the present theory is that the mechanical number of the unknown parameters is very small and is independent of the number of the layers. For validation of the proposed model, various free and forced vibration tests for thin and thick laminated/sandwich piezoelectric beams are carried out. For various electrical and mechanical boundary conditions, excellent correlation has been found between the results obtained from the proposed formulation with those resulted from the three-dimensional theory of piezoelasticity.     

Elasticity-theoretic plane problem for an anisotropic body subject to an electrical effect

The elastic properties of the body are assumed inseparable from its electrical properties (piezoelectric effect). The static problem is considered for an infinitely long homogeneous rod under the action of a plane system of forces or a lengthwise uniform distribution of electric field potential. The general equations of theory of elasticity and of electrical field theory, together with the piezoelectric relationships, are used. Conditions on the material parameters are obtained, under which a plane electric field and a plane deformation state appear in the body.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 96–103. March–April, 1970.     

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）.     

A phase field model of electromechanical fracture

Structural reliability analyses of piezoelectric solids need the modeling of failure under coupled electromechanical actions. However, the numerical simulation of failure due to fracture based on sharp crack discontinuities may suffer in situations with complex crack topologies. This can be overcome by a diffusive crack modeling based on the introduction of a crack phase field. In this work, we develop a framework of diffusive fracture in piezoelectric solids. We start our investigation with the definition of a crack surface functional of the phase field that Γ-converges for vanishing length-scale parameter to a sharp crack topology. This functional provides the basis for the definition of suitable dissipation functions which govern the evolution of the crack phase field. Based on experimental results available in the literature, we suggest a non-associative dissipative framework where the fracture phase field is driven by the mechanical part of the coupled electromechanical driving force. This accounts for a hierarchical view that considers (i) the decrease of stiffness due to mechanical rupture as the primary action that is followed by (ii) the decrease of electric permittivity due to the generated free space. The proposed definition of mechanical and electrical parts of the fracture driving force follows in a natural format from a kinematic assumption, that decomposes the total strains and the total electric field into energy-enthalpy-producing parts and fracture parts, respectively. Such an approach allows the insertion of well-known anisotropic piezoelectric storage functions without change. We end up with a three-field-problem that couples the displacement with the electric potential and the fracture phase field. The latter is governed by a micro-balance equation, which appears in a very transparent form in terms of a history field containing a maximum fracture source obtained in the time history of the electromechanical process. This representation allows the construction of a very robust algorithmic treatment based on a operator split scheme, which successively updates in a typical time step the history field, the crack phase field and finally the two piezoelectric fields. The proposed model is considered to be the canonically simple scheme for the simulation of diffusive electromechanical crack propagation in solids. We demonstrate its modeling capacity by means of representative numerical examples.     

Analysis of a permeable interface crack in elastic dielectric/piezoelectric bimaterials

A permeable interface crack between elastic dielectric material and piezoelectric material is studied based on the extended Stroh’s formalism. Motivated by strong engineering demands to design new composite materials, the authors perform numerical analysis of interface crack tip singularities and the crack tip energy release rates for 35 types of dissimilar bimaterials, respectively, which are constructed by five kinds of elastic dielectric materials: Epoxy, Polymer, Al₂O₃, SiC, and Si₃N₄ and seven kinds of practical piezoelectric ceramics: PZT-4, BaTiO₃, PZT-5H, PZT-6B, PZT-7A, P-7, and PZT-PIC 151, respectively. The elastic dielectric material with much smaller permittivity than commercial piezoelectric ceramics is treated as a special transversely isotropic piezoelectric material with extremely small piezoelectricity. The present investigation shows that the structure of the singular field near the permeable interface crack tip consists of three singularities: and , which is quite different from that in the impermeable interface crack. It can be concluded that different far field loading cases have significant influence on the near-tip fracture behaviors of the permeable interface crack. Based on the present theoretical treatment and numerical analysis, the electric field induced crack growth is well explained, which provides a better understanding of the failure mechanism induced from interface crack growth in elastic dielectric/piezoelectric bimaterials. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10572110), Doctor Foundation of the Chinese Education Ministry and Doctorate Foundation of Xi’an Jiaotong University. The English text was polished by Yunming Chen.     

Mixed mode crack initiation in piezoelectric ceramic strip

When piezoelectric ceramics are subjected to mechanical and electrical load, they can fracture prematurely due to their brittle behavior. Hence, it is important to know the electro–elastic interaction and fracture behavior of piezoelectric materials. The problem of a through crack in a piezoelectric strip of finite thickness is studied in this paper. Fourier transforms are used to reduce the problem to the solution of singular integral equations. The model technique can solve for polarization in an arbitrary direction and material anisotropy. Numerical values of the crack-tip field amplification for a piezoelectric strip under in-plane electromechanical loading are obtained. Energy density factor criterion is applied to obtain the maximum of the minimum energy density and direction of crack initiation. The influence of crack length and crack position on stress intensity and energy density factors is discussed.     

Penny shaped crack in a piezoelectric cylinder surrounded by an elastic medium subjected to combined in-plane mechanical and electrical loads

The fracture problem of a penny shaped crack in a piezoelectric ceramic cylinder surrounded by an infinite elastic medium under in-plane normal mechanical and electrical loads is considered with the electric continuous boundary conditions on the crack surface. By using the potential theory and Hankel transform, a system of dual integral equations is obtained, and expressed to a Fredholm integral equation of the second kind. The mechanical and electrical field equations and all sorts of field intensity factors of mode I are obtained, and the numerical values of various field intensity factors for PZT-6B piezoelectric ceramic surrounded by several different elastic media are graphically shown for a uniform load and a ring-shaped load, respectively. And the effects of the size of the piezoelectric cylinder and the elastic material properties on various field intensity factors are obtained.