Two collinear anti-plane shear cracks in a piezoelectric layer bonded to dissimilar half spaces

In this paper, the behaviour of two collinear anti-plane shear cracks in a piezoelectric layer bonded to dissimilar half spaces was investigated by a new method for the impermeable crack face conditions. The cracks are vertical to the interfaces of the piezoelectric layer. By using the Four transform, the problem can be solved with two pairs of triple integral equations. These equations are solved using Schmidt's method. This process quite different from that adopted previously. Numerical examples are provided to show the effect of the geometry of the interacting cracks and the piezoelectric constants of the material upon the stress intensity factor of the cracks.