Exploring the dynamic fracture performance of epoxy/cement based piezoelectric composites with complex interfaces

Abstract

Dynamic intensity factors (IFs) are the key parameters in comprehending and forecasting dynamic fracture behavior of piezoelectric composites. A domain-independent interaction integral (DII-integral) is developed to extract the dynamic stress intensity factors (SIFs) and electric displacement intensity factor (EDIF). The DII-integral is theoretically proved that there is no need to consider the electromechanical material derivatives and complicated material interfaces have no effect on the application of the method. Evaluating the results with the published data yields a good agreement and good domain-independence of the proposed I-integral is checked for multi-interface piezoelectric composites. The numerical simulations show that the amplitudes of the dynamic IFs decrease as the size of piezoelectric particle increases and crack damage is prevented as the number of piezoelectric particles increases. The peak values of the dynamic IFs are not monotonically related to the distance between the particles due to the superposition of elastic waves. The dynamic IFs increase when the volume percentage of piezoelectric fiber rises, while the opposite change is observed in laminated composites. Generally, the dynamic IFs of fiber-reinforced composites are smaller (larger) than that of laminated composites when the volume fraction of piezoelectric ceramics is higher (lower) than 40 percent.