Electrical fracture toughness for a conducting crack in ferroelectric ceramics (Q1434739)

The goal is to investigate the effect of electric fields on fracture behaviour of ferroelectic ceramics subjected to purely electric loading. In order to derive the relation between the crack tip stress intensity factor and the applied intensity factor of electric field under small scale conditions, the asymptotic problem of a conducting crack in a ferroelectric material is considered. It is shown that the switching zone boundary and the crack tip stress intensity factors due to the switching depend strongly on the angle of the polarization vector and the ratio of the coercive electric field to the yield electric field. Moreover, the electrical fracture toughness of unpoled poly-domain ferroelectrics is examined.