Stress Analysis of Wiresaw Slicing Piezoelectric Materials

Using linear piezoelectricity theory, the stress and electric potential fields in a half infinite piezoelectric material under anti-plane mechanical loading in wiresaw slicing process has been studied by using appropriate boundary conditions and contact mechanics. Both electric field and electric displacement field are singular at the edges of the contact zone between wire and workpiece. The singularity of electric displacement arises from the electric loading and electro-mechanical interaction. Similar to the conventional contact mechanics, stress singularity occurs due to the contribution of both mechanical and electric loading. At a given mechanical loading, electric loading can either increase or decrease the stress applied to the piezoelectric half space in the slicing process, which depends on the relative direction of the electric field to that of mechanical loading.