Abstract
Understanding the effect of an electric field on fracture behavior of piezoelectricmaterials is an important step towards a rational design of smart sensors andactuators. Domain switching has been observed to be the cause of significantnonlinearity in the response of piezoelectric materials subjected to mechanical andelectrical loads. While linear piezoelectricity is incapable of explaining the resultsof the experiments conducted on cracked piezoelectric specimens, a nonlinearanalysis considering domain switching is found to be necessary to describe some ofthe key observations of these experiments. In this paper, the response ofpiezoelectric solid is formulated by coupling thermal, electrical, and mechanicaleffects. The corresponding finite-element equations are derived and applied in thesolution of the piezoelectric centre crack problem, with different polingdirections, subjected to various mechanical and electrical loads. The effects ofdomain switching are evaluated on the near-tip stresses and the stressintensity factors. It is observed that a negative electric field increasesthe peak stress intensity factor while a positive electric field reduces it.
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