Fracture Mechanics of Magnetoelectroelastic Materials and Structures: State of the Art and Prospects

Magnetoelectroelastic (MEE) materials and structures have been extensively applied in MEE devices such as sensors and transducers, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and smart structures. In order to assess the strength and durability of such materials and structures, exhaustive theoretical and numerical investigations have been conducted over the past two decades. The main purpose of this paper is to present a state-of-the-art review and a critical discussion on the research of the MEE fracture mechanics. Following an introduction, the basic theory of the fracture mechanics in the linear magnetoelectroelasticity is explained with special emphasis on the constitutive equations related to different fracture modes, magnetoelectrical (ME) crack-face boundary conditions and fracture parameters for 2D plane problems. Then, the state of the art of the research on the fracture mechanics of the MEE materials and structures is reviewed and summarized, including 2D anti-plane and in-plane as well as 3D analyses under both static and dynamic loadings. The ME effects on the fracture parameters are revealed and discussed. Moreover, numerical investigations based on the finite element method (FEM), boundary element method (BEM), meshless methods and other novel methods are also reviewed for MEE fracture problems. Finally, some conclusions are drawn with several prospects to open questions and demanding future research topics. In particular, experimental observations are urgently needed to verify the validity of the theoretical predictions of the various fracture criteria. Another great challenge is to tackle the non-linear phenomena and domain switching in the fracture process zone.