Two parallel limited-permeable mode-I cracks or four parallel limited-permeable mode-I cracks in the piezoelectric materials

In this paper, the basic solutions of two parallel mode-I cracks or four parallel mode-I cracks in the piezoelectric materials were investigated by means of the Schmidt method for the limited-permeable electric boundary conditions. The electric permittivity of air in the crack was considered. Through the Fourier transform, the problems can be solved with the help of two pairs of dual integral equations, in which the unknown variables were the jumps of the displacements across the crack surfaces, not the dislocation density functions. To solve the dual integral equations, the jumps of the displacements across the crack surfaces were directly expanded in a series of Jacobi polynomials. Finally, the effects of the distance between two parallel cracks, the distance between two collinear cracks and the electric boundary conditions on the stress and the electric intensity factors in the piezoelectric materials are analyzed. These results can be used for the strength evaluation of the piezoelectric materials with multi-cracks. The crack shielding effect is also present in the piezoelectric materials.