Normal Cracks in a Functionally Graded Piezoelectric Material Strip Under Transient Thermal Loading

Abstract

Piezoelectric materials widely have been used as sensors and actuators in smart or intelligent systems to sense thermally induced distortions and to adjust for adverse thermomechanical conditions. The requirements of structural strength, reliability and lifetime of these structures call for a better understanding of the mechanics of fracture in piezoelectric materials under thermal loading. In this paper, the fracture problem of a functionally graded piezoelectric material strip (FGPM strip) containing two cracks (coplanar cracks) perpendicular to its boundaries is considered. The problem is solved for an FGPM strip that is suddenly heated from the bottom surface. The top surface is maintained at the initial temperature. The crack faces are supposed to be completely insulated. Material properties are assumed to be exponentially dependent on the distance from the bottom surface. By using the Laplace and Fourier transforms, the thermoelectromechanical fracture problem is reduced to a set of singular integral equations, which are solved numerically. The stress intensity factors for the cases of the single crack, the two embedded cracks, two edge cracks, and an embedded and an edge cracks are computed and presented as a function of the normalized time, the nonhomogeneous and geometric parameters.

Enriched Element-Free Galerkin Method for Fracture Analysis of Functionally Graded Piezoelectric Materials

“…Chen and Bian [19] studied the wave propagation characteristics of an axially polarized, functionally graded, piezoceramic cylindrical transducer submerged in an infinite fluid medium. Ueda [20] addressed the problem of two coplanar cracks in an FGPM strip under transient thermal loading. Ben Salah et al [21] examined the propagation of ultrasonic guided waves in FGPMs.…”

Solution Methods for Functionally Graded Piezoelectric Materials

“…Zhong and Yu [17] presented a general solution for an FGPM beam with arbitrarily graded material properties along the beam thickness direction. Ueda [24] addressed the problem of two coplanar cracks in an FGPM strip under transient thermal loading. Wang et al [19] analytically investigated the axisymmetric bending of circular plates whose material properties vary along the thickness.…”