Fracture and Crack Mechanics

Abstract

In the development of smart material systems and structures, piezoelectric ceramics are extensively used in sensors and actuators. The main weakness of piezoelectric ceramics is their brittleness. Stress and electric field concentrations near the tips of defects or electrodes can also induce crack initiation and propagation, which will lead to the failure of these piezoelectric ceramics. Therefore, the piezoelectric fracture and crack problems have received considerable attention due to practical importance. In the theoretical studies of the piezoelectric fracture and crack problems, there are two commonly used electrical boundary conditions across the crack face, the permeable crack model [1,2], and the impermeable crack model [3–5]. Recently, the open piezoelectric crack model [6] was used in [7–9], and the effect of electric fields on the fracture mechanics parameters such as energy release rate was discussed.