Crack deflection at an interface between dissimilar piezoelectric materials

The problem of crack deflection in bimaterial systems is considered in this paper. The material combinations may be of piezoelectric-piezoelectric, or one is piezoelectric and the other is not. Based on the Stroh formulation for anisotropic material, Green’s functions for various bimaterial combinations are presented within the framework of two-dimensional electroelasticity, allowing the crack problem to be expressed in terms of coupled singular integral equations. A crack impinging on an interface joining two dissimilar materials may arrest or may advance be either penetrating the interface or deflecting into the interface. The competition between deflection and penetration is investigated using the maximum energy release rate criterion. Numerical results are presented to study the role of remote electroelastic loads on the path selection of crack extension.