Multidomain boundary integral formulation for piezoelectric materials fracture mechanics

A boundary element method and its numerical implementation for the analysis of piezoelectric materials are presented with the aim to exploit their fea tures in linear electroelastic fracture mechanics. The problem is formulate d employing generalized displacements, that is displacements and electric p otential, and generalized tractions, that is tractions and electric displac ement. The generalized displacements boundary integral equation is obtained by using the closed form of the piezoelasticity fundamental solutions. The se are derived through a displacement based modified Lekhnitskii's function s approach. The multidomain boundary element technique is implemented to ac hieve the numerical solution. Results are presented for typical fracture me chanics problems. The generalized stress intensity factors and the generali zed relative crack displacements are computed to show the soundness of the approach. The results obtained are also analyzed to highlight some interest ing features of the electroelastic coupling effects. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scie nce Ltd. All rights reserved.