An interface crack with contact zones in a piezoelectric/piezomagnetic bimaterial

An interface crack with a frictionless contact zone at the right crack tip between two semi-infinite piezoelectric/piezomagnetic spaces under the action of a remote mechanical loading, magnetic and electric fluxes as well as concentrated forces at the crack faces is considered. Assuming that all fields are independent on the coordinate x2 co-directed with the crack front, the stresses, the electrical and the magnetic fluxes as well as the derivatives of the jumps of the displacements, the electrical and magnetic potentials are presented via a set of analytic functions in the (x1, x3)-plane with a cut along the crack region. Two cases of magneto-electric conditions at the crack faces are considered. The first case assumes that the crack is electrically and magnetically permeable, and in the second case the crack is assumed electrically permeable while the open part of the crack is magnetically impermeable. For both these cases due to the above-mentioned representation the combined Dirichlet–Riemann boundary value problems have been formulated and solved exactly. Stress, electric and magnetic induction intensity factors are found in a simple analytical form. Transcendental equations and a closed form analytical formula for the determination of the real contact zone length have been derived for both cases of magnetic conditions in the crack region. For a numerical illustration of the obtained results a bimaterial BaTiO3–CoFe2O4 with different volume fractions of BaTiO3 has been used, and the influence of the mechanical loading and the intensity of the magnetic flux upon the contact zone length and the associated intensity factors as well as the energy release rate has been shown.