Dynamic antiplane behaviour of interacting cracks in a piezoelectric medium

In this article, we examine the dynamic interaction between two cracks in a piezoelectric medium under incident antiplane shear wave loading. The theoretical formulations governing the steady-state problem are based upon the use of integral transform techniques and a self-consistent iterative method. The resulting dynamic stress intensity factors at the interacting cracks are obtained by solving the appropriate singular integral equations using Chebyshev Polynomials at different loading frequencies. Numerical examples are provided to show the effect of the geometry of the cracks, the piezoelectric constants of the material and the frequency of the incident wave upon the dynamic stress intensity factor of the cracks. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.