Effect of electric fields on fracture behavior of ferroelectric ceramics

The asymptotic problem of a semi-infinite crack perpendicular to the poling direction in a ferroelectric ceramic subjected to combined electric and mechanical loading is analyzed to investigate effect of electric fields on fracture behavior. Electromechanical coupling induced by the piezoelectric effect is neglected in this paper. The shape and size of the switching zone is shown to depend strongly on the relative magnitude between the applied electric field and stress field as well as on the ratio of the coercive electric field to the yield electric field. A universal relation between the crack tip stress intensity factor and the applied intensity factors of stress and electric field under small-scale conditions is obtained from the solution of the switching zone. It is found that the ratio of the coercive electric field to the yield electric field plays a significant role in determining the enhancement or reduction of the crack tip stress intensity factor. The fracture toughness variation of ferroelectrics under combined electric and mechanical loading is also discussed.     

Study on fracture behavior of ferroelectric ceramics under combined electromechanical loading by using a moiré interferometry technique

This paper discusses an in situ observation of fracture behavior around a crack tip in ferroelectric ceramics under combined electromechanical loading by use of a moiré interferometry technique. The deformation field induced by the electric field and the stress concentration near the crack tip in three-points bending experiments was measured. By analysis of the moiré images it is found that under a constant mechanical load, the electric field almost has no effect on the crack extension in the case that the directions of the poling, electric field and crack extension are perpendicular to each other. When the poling direction is parallel to the crack extension direction and perpendicular to the electric field, the strain decreases faster than that calculated by FEM with and without electrical loading as one goes away from the crack tip. In addition, as the electric field intensity increases, the strain near the crack tip increases, and the strain concentration becomes more significant. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10132010, 10025209, 10232023)     

Unconventional domain band structure at the crack tip in ferroelectric ceramics

Domain polarization switch near the tip of a crack or an electrode plays a critical role in the fracture or toughening of ferroelectric ceramics. The intensive electric field near a crack tip stimulates local domain switching. Experiment indicates that the domain band structure in front of an indentation crack under lateral electric loading is unconventional, attributed to the highly localizing crack tip electric field. The partially switched ferroelectric grain resembles a banded Eshelby inclusion embedded in a polycrystalline ferroelectric matrix. The domain wall energy for unconventional domain structures is estimated via arrays of misfit dislocations. Mesomechanics analysis quantifies the unconventional domain band structures. The predicted parameters include the volume fraction, the thickness, and the orientation of switched domain bands.     

Effect of electric displacement saturation on the stress intensity factor for a crack in a ferroelectric ceramic

A crack in a ferroelectric ceramic with perfect saturation under electric loading is analyzed. The boundary of the electric displacement saturation zone ahead of the crack tip is assumed to be ellipse in shape. The shape and size of ferroelectric domain switching zone near a crack tip is determined based on the nonlinear electric theory. The stress intensity factor induced by ferroelectric domain switching under small-scale conditions is numerically obtained as a function of the electric saturation zone parameter and the ratio of the coercive electric field to the yield electric field. It is found that the stress intensity factor increases as the ratio of the semi-axes of the saturation ellipse increases.     

An I-integral method for crack-tip intensity factor variation due to domain switching in ferroelectric single-crystals

In the present study, an I-integral method is established for solving the crack-tip intensity factors of ferroelectric single-crystals. The I-integral combined with the phase field model is successfully used to investigate crack-tip intensity factor variations due to domain switching in ferroelectricity subjected to electromechanical loadings, which exhibits several advantages over previous methods based on small-scale switching. First, the shape of the switching zone around a crack tip is predicted by the time-dependent Ginzburg–Landau equation, which does not require preset energy-based switching criterion. Second, the I-integral can directly solve the crack-tip intensity factors and decouple the crack-tip intensity factors of different modes based on superimposing an auxiliary state onto an actual state. Third, the I-integral is area-independent, namely, the I-integral is not affected by the integral area size, the polarization distributions, or domain walls. This makes the I-integral applicable to large-scale domain switching. To this end, the electro-elastic field intensity factors of an impermeable crack in PbTiO₃ ferroelectric single crystals are evaluated under electrical, mechanical, and combined loading. The intensity factors obtained by the I-integral agree well with those obtained by the extrapolation technique. From numerical results, the following conclusions can be drawn with respect to fracture behavior of ferroelectrics under large-scale switching. Under displacement controlled mechanical loading, the stress intensity factors (SIFs) decrease monotonically due to the domain switching process, which means a crack tip shielding or effective switching-induced toughening occurs. If an external electric field is applied, the electric displacement intensity factor (EDIF) increases in all cases, i.e., the formed domain patterns enhance the electric crack tip loading. The energy release rate, expressed by the crack-tip J-integral, is reduced by the domain switching in all examples, which underlines the switching-induced-toughening effect. In contrast, under stress controlled load, the SIF evolves due to large-scale switching to a stable value, which is higher than the non-switching initial value, i.e., fracture is promoted in this case.     

A micromechanics method to study the effect of domain switching on fracture behavior of polycrystalline ferroelectric ceramics

ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＲｅｃｅｎｔｌｙ ,ｔｈｅｆｅｒｒｏｅｌｅｃｔｒｉｃｃｅｒａｍｉｃｓｈａｓｓｕｃｈｅｘｃｅｌｌｅｎｔｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒｉｓｔｉｃｓｏｆｐｉｅｚｏｅｌｅｃｔｒｉｃｉｔｙａｎｄｐｙｒｏｅｌｅｃｔｒｉｃｉｔｙｅｔｃ .ｔｈａｔｉｔｂｅｃｏｍｅｓｏｎｅｏｆｔｈｅｍｏｓｔｉｍｐｏｒｔａｎｔｆｕｎｃｔｉｏｎａｌｍａｔｅｒｉａｌｓ.Ｆｏｒｉｎｓｔａｎｃｅ ,ｔｈｅｗｉｄｅｌｙａｐｐｌｉｅｄｓｅｎｓｏｒｓ,ｔｒａｎｓｄｕｃｅｒｓａｎｄａｃｔｕａｔｏｒｓｅｔｃ .ａｒｅｍａｄｅｏｆｔｈｅｆｅｒｒｏｅ…     

Crack instability of ferroelectric solids under alternative electric loading

The low fracture toughness of the widely used piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials in technological applications raises a big concern about their durability and safety. Up to now, the mechanisms of electric-field induced fatigue crack growth in those materials are not fully understood. Here we report experimental observations that alternative electric loading at high frequency or large amplitude gives rise to dramatic temperature rise at the crack tip of a ferroelectric solid. The temperature rise subsequently lowers the energy barrier of materials for domain switch in the vicinity of the crack tip, increases the stress intensity factor and leads to unstable crack propagation finally. In contrast, at low frequency or small amplitude, crack tip temperature increases mildly and saturates quickly, no crack growth is observed. Together with our theoretical analysis on the non-linear heat transfer at the crack tip, we constructed a safe operating area curve with respect to the frequency and amplitude of the electric field, and validated the safety map by experiments. The revealed mechanisms about how electro-thermal-mechanical coupling influences fracture can be directly used to guide the design and safety assessment of piezoelectric and ferroelectric devices.     

压电材料裂纹顶端条状电饱和区模型的力学分析

在线性压电本构方程框架下,对裂纹顶端条状电饱和区模型进行了严格的数学分析．完整地考虑了各向异性力电耦合效应．建立了电饱和区尺寸与外加电场的依赖关系．证实了当裂纹垂直极化轴时,压电材料的断裂应力随着外加正电场的增加而减小,随着外加负电场的增加而增加．当裂纹平行于极化轴时,与极化轴平行的外加电场对断裂应力无影响     

循环电载下热效应对铁电材料畴变的影响

铁电材料在力、电载荷作用尤其是循环载荷作用下有明显的热效应.热效应会在铁电材料中引起应力场和电场.另外,在外载作用下铁电材料发生约束畴变时也会产生附加的应力场,这些附加的应力场和电场都会对铁电材料的畴变产生影响.而且在循环载荷作用的情况下,这种影响会逐渐累积.但在以往的研究中,很少涉及这种影响.该文就循环电载下热效应引起的力、电场和约束畴变时产生的附加应力场对铁电材料畴变的影响进行了初步研究.     

Analysis of the electromechanical behavior of ferroelectric ceramics based on a nonlinear finite element model

A nonlinear finite element (FE) model based on domain switching was proposed to study the electromechanical behavior of ferroelectric ceramics. The incremental FE formulation was improved to avoid any calculation instability. The problems of mesh sensitivity and convergence, and the efficiency of the proposed nonlinear FE technique have been assessed to illustrate the versatility and potential accuracy of the said technique. The nonlinear electromechanical behavior, such as the hysteresis loops and butterfly curves, of ferroelectric ceramics subjected to both a uniform electric field and a point electric potential has been studied numerically. The results obtained are in good agreement with those of the corresponding theoretical and experimental analyses. Furthermore, the electromechanical coupling fields near (a) the boundary of a circular hole, (b) the boundary of an elliptic hole and (c) the tip of a crack, have been analyzed using the proposed nonlinear finite element method (FEM). The proposed nonlinear electromechanically coupled FEM is useful for the analysis of domain switching, deformation and fracture of ferroelectric ceramics.The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10025209, 10132010 and 90208002), the Research Grants of the Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (HKU7086/02E) and the Key Grant Project of the Chinese Ministry of Education (0306)     

Tuning of non-uniform switch toughening in ferroelectric composites by an electric field

This paper deals with a mode III interfacial crack subject to anti-plane stress and in-plane electric fields. The analysis concentrates on the tuning of fracture toughness from non-uniform ferroelectric-ferroelastic domain switch-ing by an electric field. The electric loading changes the size of the asymmetric switching zone. Employing the weight function method, we obtain the electrically-dependent switch toughening for stationary and quasi-static growing interfacial cracks, respectively. Multi-domain solutions are derived for non-poled and fully-poled ferroelectric composites. Numer-ical results are presented on the electric field tuning of the critical applied stress intensity factor. The research provides ways to optimize fracture properties of ferroelectric compos-ites by altering the electric field.     

Numerical simulation of domain switching in multilayer ferroelectric actuators

Micromechanical finite element methods are developed based on a nonlinear constitutive model of ferroelectric polycrystals. Electromechanical behaviors ahead of an internal electrode tip are numerically simulated in multilayer ferroelectric actuators. Around the electrode edge, the nonuniform electric field generates a concentration of stress due to the incompatible strain as well as spontaneous strain. The preferred domain switching enhances the concentration of residual stress and may cause the actuators to crack. An electrically permeable crack emanating from an internal electrode is analyzed. A large scale domain switching zone is found in the vicinity of crack tips. The larger the actuating strain and electric field are, the larger the switching zone will be. The size of switching zone even reaches the scale of crack length with increasing electromechanical loading.     

应用云纹干涉法测量力电耦合作用下铁电陶瓷的破坏行为

本文采用云纹干涉系统对的电陶瓷在力电耦合载荷作用下裂纹尖端的力学行为进行全场实时非接触动态细观测量,采用三点弯实验获取裂纹尖端区域在力电耦合作用下与电场集中有关的电致伸缩位移场,应变场,通过分析实验取得的云纹图得到了裂尖区域的位移场,应变场,发现裂尖区域就变随着与裂尖距离的增加衰减的速率比没有电场作用下的理论计算结果要快。     

压电薄膜表面贯穿裂纹的有限元分析

基于有限元软件ANSYS数值模拟,计算了激光作用下的压电薄膜表面贯穿裂纹外场应力强度因子和电位移强度因子,并且研究了90°畴变所诱致的畴变增韧行为。首先,求解无裂纹压电薄膜在激光作用下的热-力-电响应,将求得的应力和电位移场反向作用于裂纹面,求解裂纹尖端处的外场应力和电位移强度因子,然后基于小范围畴变理论求解了90°畴变所致的屏蔽应力强度因子。讨论了薄膜表面裂纹的外场应力强度因子、电位移强度因子及屏蔽应力强度因子随激光作用时间和裂纹位置的变化关系,从而预测压电薄膜体系在加热工作状况下的裂纹扩展和断裂行为。     

Interplay between polarization rotation and crack propagation in PMN-PT relaxor single crystals

Investigations on the interconnection between the polarization rotation and crack propagation are performed for [110]-oriented 74Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-26PbTiO₃ relaxor ferroelectric single crystal under electric loadings along [001] direction. The crystal is of predominantly monoclinic M_A phase with scatter distributed rhombohedral (R) phase under a moderate poling field of 900 V/mm in [001] direction. With magnitude of 800 V/mm, a through thickness crack is initiated near the electrode by electric cycling. Static electric loadings is then imposed to the single crystal. As the applied static electric field increases, domain switching in the monoclinic M_A phase and phase transition from M_A to R phase occur near the crack. The results indicate that the crack features a conducting one. Whether domain switching or phase transition occurs depends on the intensity of the electric field component that is perpendicular to the applied electric field.     

铁电材料的疲劳失效行为

在航空航天、核能发电等重大装备技术领域, 作为高温传感/驱动/能量收集器件的敏感材料——铋层状结构铁电(BLSF)陶瓷在复杂载荷环境下的疲劳失效问题严重限制着器件寿命和可靠性的提高. 本文以BLSF陶瓷的应用需求为背景, 围绕铁电材料的疲劳裂纹扩展与电畴极化翻转及其相互作用机制等关键问题, 综述了铁电材料在热、力、电三种载荷及其耦合作用下疲劳失效行为的研究现状, 并根据当前铁电材料的一些新发展、新应用对其未来研究方向进行了展望, 旨在为高性能、长寿命铁电/压电器件设计提供参考.      

A STUDY OF CRACK CLOSURE IN ELECTRIC-FIELD-INDUCED FATIGUE IN FERROELECTRIC CERAMICS

Considering the influence of the domain switching near the tip of a crack and apply-ing the idea of multiscale singularity fields in piezoelectric fracture,we have obtained an empiricalcriterion for the crack closure.Based on the domain switching in the electric yield region,referringto Yang's results on the small scale yield model for the electrical fatigue crack,a model of thecrack closure during electric-field-induced fatigue is developed to analyze the crack growth.Interms of the model we have obtained the formula of the rate of the crack growth under cyclicelectric loading.Finally we compare the theoretical predictions with the results given by Cao andEvans experimentally.It should be pointed out that the model proposed is empirical and needsto be verified by more experimental results.     

NiTi形状记忆合金裂纹尖端热力耦合行为研究

本文对NiTi形状记忆合金I型裂纹尖端热力耦合行为进行了数值仿真分析和实验验证。建立了包含相变和热力耦合的本构模型,通过有限元计算得到了裂纹尖端附近的纵向应变、马氏体体积分数和温度场分布,依据马氏体相变情况对裂纹尖端有效应力强度因子进行了修正,揭示了加载速率对形状记忆合金裂纹尖端有效应力强度影子的影响规律。参数研究表明,随着加载频率的增加,裂纹尖端附近温度逐渐升高,马氏体相变区域逐渐缩小,有效应力强度因子呈下降趋势,形状记忆合金表现出增韧效应,有助于减缓裂纹扩展。本研究结果对于揭示热力耦合作用下超弹性形状记忆合金疲劳裂纹扩展规律具有重要参考意义。     

Effect of electric boundary conditions on crack propagation in ferroelectric ceramics

In this paper, the effect of electric boundary conditions on Mode I crack propagation in ferroelectric ceramics is studied by using both linear and nonlinear piezoelectric fracture mechanics. In linear analysis, impermeable cracks under open circuit and short circuit are analyzed using the Stroh formalism and a rescaling method. It is shown that the energy release rate in short circuit is larger than that in open circuit. In nonlinear analysis, permeable crack conditions are used and the nonlinear effect of domain switching near a crack tip is considered using an energy-based switching criterion proposed by Hwang et al.（Acta Metal. Mater.,1995）. In open circuit, a large depolarization field induced by domain switching makes switching much more diffcult than that in short circuit. Analysis shows that the energy release rate in short circuit is still larger than that in open circuit, and is also larger than the linear result. Consequently,whether using linear or nonlinear fracture analysis, a crack is found easier to propagate in short circuit than in open circuit, which is consistent with the experimental observations of Kounga Njiwa et al.（Eng. Fract. Mech., 2006）.     

Influence of domain switching zones on the fracture toughness of ferroelectrics

The paper presents a fracture model for ferroelectric materials taking into account the hysteretic domain switching processes near to the tip of a macroscopic crack. The model is based on the balance of energy supplied by the driving forces, on the one hand, and the total of energies either dissipated by domain switching, stored in the crack wake region or consumed by the formation of new fracture surface, on the other hand. An internal variable theory describes the nonlinear coupled electromechanical material response within the framework of a three-dimensional continuum model. For simplicity, the complex orientation distribution function of domains in a polycrystalline ceramic is approximated by only six representative space orientations. The theory predicts certain dimensionless material parameter combinations which govern the change of fracture toughness under the application of different mechanical and electrical loadings. A comparison with data available in the literature for barium titanate ceramics yields a reasonable coincidence.