Impact response of a finite crack in an orthotropic piezoelectric ceramic

Summary The transient dynamic stress intensity factor and dynamic energy release rate were determined for a cracked piezoelectric ceramic under normal impact in this study. A plane step pulse strikes the crack and stress wave diffraction takes place. Laplace and Fourier transforms are employed to reduce the transient problem to the solution of a pair of dual integral equations in the Laplace transform plane. The solution of the dual integral equations is then expressed in terms of a Fredholm integral equation of the second kind. A numerical Laplace inversion technique is used to compute the values of the dynamic stress intensity factor and the dynamic energy release rate for some piezoelectric ceramics, and the results are graphed to display the electroelastic interactions.