A permeable interface crack between dissimilar thermopiezoelectric media

Summary This paper presents an explicit treatment of the generalized 2D thermopiezoelectric problem of an interfacial crack between two dissimilar thermopiezoelectric media by means of the extend Stroh formalism. In comparison with the other relevant studies, the present work has two features: one is that the crack is assumed to be a permeable slit across which the normal electric displacement and the tangential electric field are continuous. The other is that the heat loading is applied at infinity, rather than on the crack faces. As a result, the field intensity factors and the electric field inside the crack are obtained in explicit closed-forms, respectively. As examples, the solutions of several particular cases, including that of an impermeable crack and that of a homogeneous material with a crack are also presented. It is shown that the electric field inside a crack may be singular and oscillatory for the case of an interfacial crack, while for the case of a crack in a homogeneous medium it is linearly variable. Moreover, it is also found that for a homogeneous medium with a crack the stress intensity factors based on the impermeable model and permeable model are same, but the intensity factor of the electric displacement is not.