Investigation of an interface crack with a contact zone in a piezoelectric bimaterial under limited permeable electric boundary conditions

The plane strain problem for an interface crack between two bonded piezoelectric semi-infinite planes under remote electromechanical loading is considered. Mechanically frictionless and electrically permeable contact zones are assumed at the crack tips and the remaining part of the crack is considered as electrically limited permeable with a certain permeability of the crack medium. Patron’s way of modelling limited permeable conditions is used. By means of integral transforms the problem is reduced to a nonlinear system of singular integral equations. An iterative scheme together with discretization and utilization of Gauss-Chebishev quadrature rule is applied for the solution of this system. Distributions of the electric displacement along the crack region as well as the stress and electric intensity factors and the energy release rate are found for different electromechanical loads and crack permeabilities. Calculations are performed for an artificial contact zone length, however the way of an easier determination of the associated values for the real contact zone length is shown. As a particular case of the obtained solution the crack in a homogeneous piezoelectric media is considered. The results of the calculations are compared to the corresponding results obtained earlier by means of Hao and Shen’s way of modelling the crack permeability. Even though the electric displacements obtained in the respective framework of these models differ essentially, it appears that the fracture mechanical parameters are in good agreement with each other.