Int J Fract (2006) 141:63–73 DOI 10.1007/s10704-006-0062-y ORIGINAL ARTICLE On the dynamic behaviour of interfacial cracks between a piezoelectric layer and an elastic substrate G. L. Huang · X. D. Wang Received: 4 June 2005 / Accepted: 13 March 2006 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2006 Abstract Surface-bonded piezoelectric layers can be used as actuators/sensors for advanced struc- tural applications. The current paper provides a theoretical study of the dynamic behaviour of inter- acting cracks between a piezoelectric layer and an elastic medium under antiplane mechanical loads. The electromechanical field of a single interfacial crack is determined first using Fourier transform technique and solving the resulting integral equa- tions. This fundamental solution is then imple- mented into a pseudo-incident wave method to account for the interaction between different cracks. The dynamic behaviour of the resulting stress field is studied with special attention being paid to the stress intensity factors at the crack tips. Typical examples are provided to show the effect of the size and position of the cracks, the material combination and the loading frequency upon the stress intensity factors. Keywords Interface · Crack · Piezoelectric layer · Dynamic behaviour · Interaction G. L. Huang · X. D. Wang (B ) Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2G8 e-mail: xiaodong.wang@ualberta.ca 1 Introduction Due to their advantages of quick response, low power consumption, high linearity and strong elec- tromechanical coupling, piezoelectric materials have been extensively used as actuators and sen- sors to form smart systems in the design of ad- vanced structures (Gandhi and Thompson 1992; Chee et al. 1998; Bar-Cohen 2000; Boller 2000). In these applications, piezoelectric actuators/sen- sors are usually surface-mounted and the actua- tion/sensing process is controlled by the load transfer through the interfaces. Any interfacial deb- onding between these actuators/sensors and the host structure may significantly degrade their effi- ciency. The determination of the electromechani- cal behaviour of interfacial debonding in integrated smart structures is, therefore, an impor- tant issue in the design of this type of structures. The quasi-static electromechanical behaviour of cracks in piezoelectric materials has been exten- sively studied. There are two typical crack models using different electric boundary conditions along the crack surfaces, which have been extensively used to study the fracture behaviour of piezoelec- tric materials. One is the electrically permeable crack model (Parton 1976; Beom 2003), and the other is the electrically impermeable model (Deeg 1980; Pak 1990, 1992; Suo et al. 1992; Park and Sun 1994). For the permeable crack model, both electric displacement and electric potential are