Crack kinking in a piezoelectric solid (Q1302788)

The authors investigate the problem of crack kinking in a piezoelectric solid, using Stroh formalism. The kink of the crack is modeled by a continuous distribution of edge dislocations and electric dipoles, and the fundamental solution for the crack kinking is provided by the interation between a piezoelectric dislocation and a traction-free crack. The mathematical problem is reduced to the solution of a system of singular integral equations for dislocation and electric dipole density functions associated with the kinked crack. The authors also present and discuss numerical results for a PZT-4 material under different electro-mechanical loading and for different crack lengths. It is shown, among others, that the crack tends to propagate along a straight line under tensile stress and positive electric fields.