Static and extending interface cracks with contact zones in anisotropic as well as in piezoelectric bimaterials

Abstract

AbstractAn interface crack with an electrically permeable and mechanically frictionless contact zone in a piezoelectric bimaterial under the action of a remote mixed mode mechanical loading as well as thermal and electrical fields is considered in the first part of this paper. By use of the matrix‐vector representations of thermal, mechanical and electrical fields via sectionally‐holomorphic functions the problems of linear relationships are formulated and solved exactly both for an electrically permeable and an electrically impermeable interface crack. For these cases the transcendental equations and clear analytical formulas are derived for the determination of the contact zone lengths and the associated fracture mechanical parameters.A plane strain problem for a crack with a frictionless contact zone at the leading crack tip extending stationary along an interface of two semi‐infinite anisotropic spaces with a subsonic speed under the action of various loading is considered in the second part of this paper. By introducing of a moving coordinate system connected with the crack tip and by using the formal similarity of static and propagating crack problems the combined Dirichlet‐Riemann boundary value problem is formulated and solved exactly for this case as well and a transcendental equation is obtained for the determination of the real contact zone length. It is found that the increase of the crack speed leads to an increase of the real contact zone length and the correspondent stress intensity factors which increase significantly for a quasi‐Rayleigh wave speed.