Boundary element modeling of cracks in piezoelectric solids. (Q5952737)

The study focuses on the application of boundary element methods for linear fracture mechanics of two-dimensional piezoelectric solids. A complete set of piezoelectric Green's functions, based on the extended Lekhnitskii's formalism and distributed dislocation modeling, are presented. Special Green's functions are obtained for an infinite medium containing a conducting crack or an impermeable crack. The numerical solution of the boundary integral equation and the computation of fracture parameters are discussed. The concept of crack closure integral is utilized to calculate energy release rates. The present scheme can be applied to study complex cracks such as branched cracks, forked cracks and microcrack clusters.