Nucleation and growth of domains near crack tips in single crystal ferroelectrics

The nucleation and growth of domains is investigated near a stationary crack tip in a single crystal of ferroelectric material. The phase-field approach, applying the material polarization as the order parameter, is used as the theoretical modeling framework and the finite element method is used for the numerical solution technique. The electromechanical form of the J-integral is appropriately modified to account for the polarization gradient energy terms, and analyzed to illustrate the amount of shielding, or lack thereof, due to domain switching at the crack tip. It is shown that the nucleation of domains near the crack tip due to applied electric field is affected by applied stress. However, the crack-tip energy release rate can change significantly between the instant of domain nucleation and the final equilibrium domain configuration. Implications of these results for ferroelectric single crystal fracture criteria are discussed.