Fatigue crack growth driven by electric fields in piezoelectric ceramics and its governing fracture parameters

Fatigue crack growth test for piezoelectric ceramics was performed under cyclic electric loading. Double cantilever beam specimen, which was made of two different piezoelectric ceramics, with a through notch was used. The specimens were, varying the amplitude and the mean value, subjected to various cyclic electric fields. It was found that crack growth behavior is greatly dependent on the amplitude and mean value of cyclic electric field and materials. Crack growth rate decreased as electric field increased and finally stopped. Crack growths under the positive, the negative and the shifted electric field were very slow compared to that under fully reversed electric field. However, threshold for the crack propagation did not depend greatly on materials. Then, as possible governing fracture parameters, CED and electric displacement intensity factor were chosen based on the results of electromechanical finite element analysis within linear framework and their closed form equations were also obtained considering the influences of electric boundary conditions inside the notch. Finally, the parameters were correlated with crack growth rate measured experimentally by employing Paris law type equation. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.