Effects of the volume fraction of piezoelectric particles in the magneto-electro-elastic interfacial region on the fracture behavior of a laminate multiferroic plate

Abstract

Magneto-electro-elastic (MEE) interfacial regions may be formed in multiferroic composites consisting of alternate piezoelectric (PE) and piezomagnetic layers during the hot-pressing process. The existence of such an MEE region may have effects on the mechanical behavior of the composite, which is an interesting problem deserving studying. The present article proposes an interfacial fracture model for a multiferroic composite that contains an MEE interfacial region. The methods of Fourier integral transform and Green’s functions are employed to convert the crack problem with mixed boundary conditions into Cauchy singular integral equations, which are further numerically solved by the Lobatto–Chebyshev collocation method to determine the stress intensity factors. In the numerical computation, the PE volume fraction is chosen as the only characteristic parameter to calculate the material properties of the MEE interfacial region based on the linear rule of mixture. Finally, parametric studies are conducted to reveal the effects of the volume fraction on the fracture behavior, and two main conclusions are drawn: (a) The effects of the PE volume fraction reflect the effects of the material-property jumps across the interfaces, and (b) the interfacial fracture behavior is mainly dominated by the competition between the property jumps across the interfaces and the thickness of the interfacial region.