Analysis of cracks and notches in piezoelectric composites using scaled boundary finite element method

This paper presents a semi-analytical technique to analyze two-dimensional cracks and notches inside piezoelectric composites. The proposed technique is based on the so-called scaled boundary finite element method. The use of high-order spectral elements leads to high accuracy and fast convergence. By using the proposed technique, the stress and electric displacement intensity factors KI, KII and KIV are evaluated directly from the solutions of the singular stress and electric displacement fields. Meanwhile, the orders of singularity are also investigated. The numerical studies are conducted to demonstrate the simplicity of the proposed technique in handling fracture problems of piezoelectric composites. The present results also show the high accuracy of the proposed technique can achieve.