ON THE ENERGY OF ELECTROELASTIC FRACTURE

Two energy approaches to electroelastic fracture yielding path-indepen dent integrals already proposed in the literature are analysed in this paper. A particular problem concerning the propagation of an electric ally conducting crack in a dielectric is formulated and the near-tip s olution is obtained. This is used to show that one of the above-mentio ned energy balances for the fractured body contains a diverging integr al, becoming inadequate for the description of such a real situation. The controversy concerning the path-independent integrals is identifie d as being a controversy between two basic different formulations of e lectroelasticity equations. In the present context, the obtained resul ts actually represents an argument in favour of the theory that views the action of electromagnetic fields via contact forces rather than at -a-distance forces.