Effect of finite cracking on the magneto-electric coupling properties of magneto-electro-elastic composite laminates

Magneto-electro-elastic composites can be developed in the form of a composite laminate by alternating the ferromagnetic layers and ferroelectric layers during stacking. Presence of interfacial crack may influence the magneto-electro-mechanical coupling behavior of magneto-electro-elastic materials considerably. This article establishes an analytical model for the analysis of interfacial crack problem in a layered magneto-electro-elastic medium. Unlike most existing studies, this article focuses on the magneto-electro-elastic laminate of finite size both in the thickness and the length directions. According to the boundary conditions, the mechanical, electric, and magnetic fields in the cracked magneto-electro-elastic laminate are formulated by singular integral method. The effect of interfacial cracking on the effective properties of the magneto-electro-elastic composites is studied. In addition, the crack tip field intensity factors are also given as they are not available in open literature.