Simulation of interface cracking in piezoelectric layers

As a recently developed numerical analysis method based on moving least square (MLS) interpolation, the element free Galerkin method (EFG) is one of the promising methods because it does not require any element connectivity data and does not suffer much degradation in accuracy when nodal arrangements are very irregular. In EFG, the control equation can be obtained by means of the weak variation of energy function and the shape function formulated through MLS requires only nodal information. Therefore, it is advantageous to employ mesh-free method in the fields where re-meshing is inevitable, such as crack propagation, high velocity impact and so on. In this investigation, based on the developed electromechanical EFG method, several coupled mechanical and electrical problems are studied numerically. One is the infinite plate material with a cavity, and the other is interface cracking in bi-piezoelectric materials. In these examples, the effect of material parameters and ratio of mechanical loading to electrical loading are examined.