Fracture mechanical assessment of interface cracks with contact zones in piezoelectric bimaterials under thermoelectromechanical loadings II. Electrically impermeable interface cracks

This paper constitutes the second part of a study of interface cracks with contact zones in thermopiezoelectrical bimaterials, and it is concerned with the case of an electrically impermeable interface crack. The principal physical peculiarity of this case in comparison with an impermeable interface crack is connected with the dependencies of the contact zone length and the fracture mechanical parameters on the prescribed electrical flux, and in a mathematical sense the main peculiarity is concerned with the reduction of the problem in question to the joint solution of inhomogeneous combined Dirichlet–Riemann and Hilbert boundary value problems. The exact analytical solutions of the mentioned problems have been found for an arbitrary contact zone length, and the required thermal, mechanical and electrical characteristics at the interface as well as the associated fracture mechanical parameters at the corresponding crack tips are presented. The transcendental equations for the determination of the real contact zone length have been obtained for a general case and for a small contact zone length in an especially simple form. Using the admissible directions of the heat and the electrical fluxes defined in this paper as well, the dependencies of the real contact zone length and the associated fracture and electrical intensity factors on the intensities of the thermal and electrical fluxes are presented in tables and associated diagrams.