Strip electro-mechanical yielding model for piezoelectric plate cut along two equal collinear cracks

The multiple-crack problems for piezoelectric ceramics till now have not yet address the crack opening arrest problem. The present work addresses this paucity. A 2-D strip-electro-mechanical yielding model is proposed for a transversely isotropic piezoelectric media weakened by two internal equal collinear straight cracks. The infinite boundary is prescribed with combined uniform constant in-plane mechanical and electrical loads. Developed mechanical and electric strip zones are arrested by prescribing over their rims uniform, normal, cohesive yield point stress and saturation limit electric displacement. Two cases are considered when saturation zone is bigger than developed yield zone and vice versa. Stroh formulation together with complex variable technique is employed to obtain the solution. Closed form expressions are derived for saturation zone length, yield zone length, crack opening displacement (COD), crack opening potential jump (COP) and energy release rate (ERR). An illustrative numerical study is prescribed to determine the effect of various parameters on the crack growth arrest and presented graphically. The results reveal that the model is capable of crack arrest under small-scale mechanical and electric yielding. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.