On a piezoelectric material containing a permeable elliptical crack (Q1577290)

The authors present failure criteria for an infinite space made of piezoelectric material subjected to uniform electromechanical loadings and containing a permeable elliptic crack. The equivalent inclusion method permits to treat the permeable crack as an elliptical inclusion with zero elastic and piezoelectric material constants, while its dielectric constants remain finite. The authors use the total potential energy function to derive closed form expressions for energy release rates and critical electromechanical loadings for some special forms of the loads. These expressions are shown to be dependent on the aspect ratio of the elliptical crack, as well as on the type of electromechanical loading and the piezoelectric properties. The analysis of the results obtained demonstrates that the electric field can retard the crack propagation, and that the elliptical crack is difficult to be ruptured under a mechanical loading applied in the antiplane shear sense.