The electrical boundary conditions on the crack faces and their applicability in piezoelectric materials are discussed. A slit crack and a notch of ?nite thickness in piezoelectric materials subjected to combined mechanical and electrical loads is considered. Here, a crack is de?ned as a notch without thickness, which is ?lled with air or vacuum. The crack or notch is perpendicular to the poling direction of the medium. The ideal crack face electrical boundary conditions, i.e., the electrically permeable crack and the electrically impermeable crack, are in- vestigated ?rst. Then dependence of the ?eld intensity factors on notch thickness at the notch tips is analyzed to obtain a closed-form. The results are compared with the ideal crack solutions. Some useful results are found.
This paper discusses electromagnetic boundary conditions on crack faces in magneto- electroelastic materials, where piezoelectric, piezomagnetic and magnetoelectric effects are coupled. A notch of finite thickness in these materials is also addressed. Four idealized electromagnetic boundary conditions assumed for the crack-faces are separately investigated, i.e. （a） electrically and magnetically impermeable （crack-face）, （b） electrically impermeable and magnetically permeable, （c） electrically permeable and magnetically impermeable, and （d） electrically and magnetically permeable. The influence of the notch thickness on important parameters, such as the field intensity factors, the energy release rate at the notch tips and the electromagnetic fields inside the notch, are studied and the results are obtained in closed-form. Results under different idealized electromagnetic boundary conditions on the crack-face are compared, and the applicability of these idealized assumptions is discussed.
