A screw dislocation interacting with a finite crack in a piezoelectric medium

The electroelastic interaction of a piezoelectric screw dislocation in an infinite medium with a finite crack under remote uniform loadings is dealt with. We aim to compare how the two different electrical boundary conditions along the crack surface, namely, electrically impermeable and electrical permeable, affect the mechanical and electrical fields produced by a line force, a line charge and a line screw dislocation. The field intensity factors at the crack tip and the image forces on the dislocation due to the crack and the remote uniform loadings are also computed and discussed for two different boundary conditions. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.