This study focuses on the behavior of a crack in piezoelectric material in which the crack is parallel to the poling direction. Tests were carried out on four-point bend specimens made of PZT-5H (Morgan Electro Ceramics, Wrexham, UK). Cracks were introduced parallel to the poling direction. With an electric field induced perpendicular to the cracks, the load was increased until failure occurred. Using the load at fracture, the level of the electric field and the critical crack length, finite element analyses were carried out to determine the intensity factors. These included K I , K I V and a small K I I component. The latter occurred because of the small asymmetry of the crack. The material within the crack (air) was modeled to be a dielectric material. A fracture criterion is implemented in which the test results show small scatter about the failure curve. These tests were carried out in order to improve on the scatter obtained from a previous set of tests presented in Motola et al. (Int J Fract 159:167-190, 2009a). The scatter from those results will be explored.
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