Stress intensification near an elliptical crack border

Abstract

Analyzed in this work is the stress intensification around an elliptical crack in a piezoelectric medium with transverse isotropy. The electroelastic field equations in three dimensions are expressed in terms of the displacement components and electric potential. Two potential functions are introduced to obtain the solution for an elliptical crack subjected to uniform tractions and electric disturbance. The plane of transverse isotropy is parallel to the crack. Complex interactions of the local stresses and electric displacements are found, the variations of which around the crack border are expressed in terms of the stress intensity factor. Numerical results are obtained for four different peizo-ceramic materials; they are PZT-6B, PZT-2, BaTi0 3 and PZT-5H. Enhancement of piezoelectric properties is shown to reduce the crack border stress intensification.