Phase field fracture model of transversely isotropic piezoelectric materials with thermal effect

Abstract

Predicting the failure of piezoelectric actuators and sensors is of engineering and scientific significance. In this work, a new phase field computational framework with thermal effect is developed to characterize the fracture behavior of piezoelectric materials. The present model involves the thermo-electro-elastic coupling effect to quantify the variations of the electrical field, temperature evolution and mechanical deformation during the fracture process. The positive part of mechanical energy is solely employed as the crack driving force in order to describe the unsymmetric electrical and mechanical fracture behaviors. A robust and stable staggered algorithm, which is adopted to address multi-physics problems, is developed. Numerical calculations are carried out to show the thermal effect and the influence of the external electrical field on the fracture behaviors of piezoelectric materials. The thermal loading may promote or delay the crack propagation, while its effect on the fracture load is weak. The direction and magnitude of the external electrical fields may significantly affect the fracture loads. The present study may benefit future design of piezoelectric devices in practical engineering.