A piezoelectric material strip with a crack perpendicular to its boundary surfaces

A cracked piezoelectric material strip under combining mechanical and electrical loads is considered. The crack is vertical to the top and bottom edges of the strip. The edges of the strip are parallel to the x-axis and perpendicular to the z-axis. When a piezoelectric ceramic is poled, it exhibits transversely isotropic behavior. Among many possible poled axis orientations, a particular orientation when the poling direction lies parallel to x-axis is examined in this paper. Both impermeable crack and permeable crack assumptions are considered. Numerical results are included for three kinds of fracture mechanics specimens, namely an edge-cracked strip, a double edge-cracked strip, and a center-cracked strip, subjected to uniform tensions and uniform electric displacement loads simultaneously, at the far ends. In addition, an edge-cracked strip under pure bending and uniform electric displacement loads at the far ends is also investigated in this paper.