Application of the X‐FEM to the fracture of piezoelectric materials

This paper presents an application of the extended finite element method (X‐FEM) to the analysis of fracture in piezoelectric materials. These materials are increasingly used in actuators and sensors. New applications can be found as constituents of smart composites for adaptive electromechanical structures. Under in service loading, phenomena of crack initiation and propagation may occur due to high electromechanical field concentrations. In...