Thermoelectric and stress fields for a cracked thermoelectric media based on the electric field saturation model

This paper considers a crack that is vertical to the applied electric flux and energy flux loads in thermoelectric materials. The paper proposes the idea of electrical nonlinearity at the crack tip and develops a strip saturation model with electric field reaching a saturation limit in front of the crack. The energy flux intensity factor, thermal flux intensity factor and stress intensity factor are obtained. They are found to depend on the applied electric flux and applied energy flux loads. However, when electrical nonlinearity at the crack tip is not considered, they are only dependent on applied energy flux load. It is interesting to see that these intensity factors at electrically yielded crack tip are independent of the strength and size of electrical saturation. The result of the thermal stress intensity factor of this paper is very general and easy to use in the strength evaluation of thermoelectric materials and their devices.