TRANSIENT RESPONSES OF AN ECCENTRIC MODE-I CRACK IN A PIEZOELECTRIC SEMICONDUCTOR STRIP

Due to the inherent mechanical-electro-carrier multi-field coupling characteristic, piezoelectric semiconductors (PSCs) exhibit significant potential for application in sensors, transducers and transistor devices. However, their intrinsic brittleness may lead to crack propagation under complex multi-field operating conditions, which can degrade functionality or cause catastrophic failure. This study investigates the transient fracture behavior of a PSC strip containing an eccentric Mode-I crack. By applying Laplace and Fourier transforms, the mixed boundary-value problem is converted into a standard Cauchy singular integral equation of the first kind in the Laplace transform domain. Then this integral equation is solved by Gauss-Chebyshev collocation method to obtain the fracture parameters in the Laplace domain. Through numerical inversion, the dynamic generalized field intensity factors and energy release rate in the time domain are obtained. The numerical results indicate that the influence of conductivity is strongly dependent on the type of applied loading. Under purely mechanical loading, higher conductivity may accelerate crack growth, whereas under purely electrical loading, it produces a marked decrease in fracture parameters. Increasing the layer thickness effectively reduces the fracture parameters and thus enhances the reliability, while cracks located closer to the boundary exhibit larger fracture parameters. Moreover, the time at which the dynamic fracture parameters reach their peak values is governed by the material properties, crack location and layer thickness.