Interaction of a dipole with an interfacial crack in piezoelectric media

Abstract We have studied the interaction of an electric dipole with an interface crack between two dissimilar piezoelectric materials. The solutions are derived based on the Stroh formalism. Three crack models studied here are the electrically impermeable, permeable and conducting cracks. The Green functions, the intensity factors of fields and the energy release rate are presented for the three cases. Numerical calculations have also performed to investigate the effect of the dipole’s rotation on the energy release rate at the crack tip. It is shown that the energy release rates for the three crack models all reach their maximum values when the direction of the dipole is perpendicular to the crack. Moreover, the energy release rate for an electrically conducting crack is greater than that for an electrically impermeable or permeable crack having the same size under the same loading conditions.