Antiplane interface crack between two bonded dissimilar piezoelectric layers

The problem of an antiplane crack situated in the interface between two bonded dissimilar piezoelectric layers is considered under the permeable crack assumption. it is assumed that applied longitudinal shear stress and electric loading at the layer surfaces are prescribed. By using an integral transform technique, the problem considered is reduced to dual integral equations, which is further transformed into a Fredholm integral equation by introducing an auxiliary function. The field intensity factors and the energy release rate are obtained in explicit form in terms of the auxiliary function. In particular, by solving analytically a resulting singular integral equation, they are determined in closed-form in terms of given electromechanical loading for the case of two bonded layers of equal thickness. Some numerical results are presented graphically to show the influence of the material properties and geometric parameters on the normalized energy release rate. (C) 2003 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.