TWO DIMENSIONAL INTERFACIAL CRACKS ANALYSIS BETWEEN PIEZOELECTRIC AND PIEZOMAGNETIC LAYERS

Two dimensional fracture problem of interfacial cracks between piezoelectric and piezomagnetic layers are investigated by using integral transform method and singular integral equation technique. On the interface, both electric potential for piezoelectric material and magnetic potential for piezomagnetic material are assumed to be zero. On the boundaries of the bounded piezoelectric and piezomagnetic layers, both mechanical and electrical loads are applied to the surface of piezoelectric ceramics; both mechanical and magnetic loads are applied to the surface of piezomagnetic material. The stress intensity factors as well as mechanical energy release rates (MERRs) are derived. And the MERRs are further calculated and discussed. The numerical results show that the interfacial crack between piezoelectric and piezomagnetic bimaterials is more difficult to initiate and propagate than the one between corresponding elastic bimaterials under the same mechanical loadings, and that for a central interfacial crack, increasing the height of the layers generally can impede the crack propagation and growth. The results presented here should have potential applications to the design of multilayered magnetoelectroelastic structures.