Basic solutions of two parallel mode-I cracks or four parallel mode-I cracks in the piezoelectric materials

In this paper, the stress and the electric intensity factors of two parallel mode-I cracks or four parallel mode-I cracks in the piezoelectric materials were examined by means of the Schmidt method for the permeable electric boundary conditions. The present problem can be solved by using the Fourier transform and the technique of dual integral equation, in which the unknown variables are the jumps of displacements across the crack surfaces, not the dislocation density functions. To solve the dual integral equations, the displacement jumps are directly expanded in a series of Jacobi polynomials. Finally, the effects of the distance between two parallel cracks and the distance between two collinear cracks on the stress and the electric intensity factors in the piezoelectric materials are analyzed. These results can be used for the strength evaluation of the piezoelectric materials with multi-cracks. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.