Fracture analysis of a curved crack in a piezoelectric plane under general thermal loading

Abstract

The mixed-mode problem of a cracked piezoelectric plane subjected to a general in-plane thermal load is considered. The crack is modeled as distributed thermo-mechanical dislocations with unknown density which are determined by using the Fourier transform method. Furthermore, stress, electric displacement, and heat flux in the intact plane, under thermal load are obtained. These solutions are used to construct singular integral equations in the piezoelectric plane with an arc-shaped crack under thermo-mechanical loading. The integral equations are solved numerically to obtain dislocation density functions on a crack surface. These functions are used to determine field intensity factors for the crack. Finally, the effect of the crack length, the radius of the crack, and distance from the temperature disturbance is investigated under different loading conditions.