A closed crack tip model for interface cracks inthermopiezoelectric materials

The interface crack problem of a bimaterial thermopiezoelectric solid was treated byapplying the extended version of Strohs formalism and singular integral equation approach. Theinterface crack considered is subjected to combined thermal, mechanical and electric loads.Under the applied loading, the interface crack is assumed to be partially opened. Formulation ofthe problem results in a set of singular integral equations which are solved numerically. Thestudy shows that the contact zone is extremely small in comparison with the crack length. Basedon the formulation, some physically meaningful quantities of interest such as stress intensityfactors and size of contact zone for a particular material group are analyzed.