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Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
ScienceDirect
Procedia Structural Integrity 42 (2022) 1584–1590

23 European Conference on Fracture - ECF23

Influence of flexoelectricity on an interface crack between two

dissimilar dielectric materials
Jan Sladeka* , Vladimir Sladeka , Maryan Hrytsynaa , Tomas Profanta,b
a
Institite of Construction and Architecture, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 84503 Bratislava, Slovakia
b
Institute of Solid Mechanics, Brno University of Technology, Technicka 2, 61669 Brno, Czech Republic

Abstract

In the present paper, the interface crack between two dissimilar dielectric materials under a mechanical load is investigated with
including flexoelectricity effects. Flexoelectricity is a size dependent electro-mechanical coupling phenomenon, where the electric
polarization is induced by a strain gradient in dielectrics. The strain gradients may potentially break the inversion symmetry in
centrosymmetric crystals and polarization is observed even in all dielectric materials. The polarization is proportional to the strain
gradients in the direct flexoelectricity. Layered composite structures are frequently utilized in microelectronics. Due to a poor
adhesion of protection layer and basic material, the interface crack can be created there and for the prediction of failure of these
structures it becomes essential to investigate distribution of the interfacial stress and strain fields.
Governing equations in the gradient theory contain higher-order derivatives than in the standard continuum mechanics. Therefore,
a reliable computational tool is required to solve these boundary-value problems. The mixed finite element method (FEM) is
developed, where the standard C0 continuous finite elements are utilized for independent approximations of displacements and
strains. The constraints between the strain gradients and displacements are satisfied by collocation at Gaussian integration points
inside elements. In numerical examples, a parametric study is performed with respect to flexoelectric and elastic coefficients for
both material regions. The influence of these parameters on the crack opening displacement is discussed.
©
© 2022
2020The TheAuthors.
Authors.Published by Elsevier
Published B.V. B.V.
by Elsevier
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 23 European Conference on Fracture – ECF23
Peer-review under responsibility of 23 European Conference on Fracture - ECF23
Keywords: Direct flexoelectricity, gradient theory, a pure mechanical load, induced electric potential

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +421-904885687

E-mail address: jan.sladek@savba.sk

2452-3216 © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review under responsibility of 23 European Conference on Fracture - ECF23

2452-3216 © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 23 European Conference on Fracture – ECF23
10.1016/j.prostr.2022.12.200
 Jan Sladek et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 42 (2022) 1584–1590 1585
2 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

1. Introduction

The delamination is observed frequently in layered structures due to induced high stresses on the interface at a
thermal load. Then, for the prediction of failure, it is needed to analyse stress and strain fields near the tip of interface
cracks. In literature one can find a lot of studies on interface cracks analysed by the classical theory of elasticity, where
the microstructure of the materials is ignored (Askes and Gitman 2009). The microstructure has to be considered if
the characteristic length of the material structure is comparable with the size of the structure (Buhlmann et al. 2002;
Catalan et al. 2011). The gradient theory has been successfully applied to modelling micro/nano-sized structrures and
cracks in homogeneous materials (Altan S, Aifantis 1992; Aifantis 2003; Aravas and Giannakopoulos 2009; Sladek
et al. 2017; Hu SL and Shen SP 2009). Results for interface cracks between two dissimilar materials analysed by the
gradient theory are very seldom in literature (Itou 1991; Piccoroaz et al. 2012; Kotoul and Profant 2018).
In the direct flexoelectricity the electric polarization is induced by strain gradients. Due to the large strain gradients
the polarization is induced even in all dielectric materials (Yudin and Tagantsev 2013). The biggest influence of
flexoelectricity is observed at the crack tip vicinity since the strain gradients are the largest there (Huang et al. 1999;
Georgiadis 2003; Gourgiotis and Georgiadis 2009). Recent experimental observations and analytical studies of the
flexoelectric effect near the crack tip have been reported by Wang et al. (2020) and Tian et al. (2022) in homogeneous
materials. Numerical investigation of the flexoelectric effect near interface crack tips between two dissimilar materials
is still missing. Therefore, we solve this problem in this paper.
For this purpose it is needed to have a reliable computational tool. The finite element method (FEM) seems to be a
convenient tool to solve general boundary-value problems in the gradient theory of elasticity with flexoelectric effect.
The standard C0 continuous finite element method cannot be applied to solve problems in the gradient theory due to
higher order derivatives in the governing equation (Sladek et al. 2017, 2019; Tian et al. 2021). In this paper the mixed
FEM is developed for an interface crack between two dissimilar dielectrics, where the C0 continuous approximation
is employed independently for displacement and displacement gradients. The constraints between them are satisfied
by collocation inside elements (Tian et al. 2021).
Numerical results illustrate the influence of the flexoelectric coefficient and ratio of elastic coefficients on the crack
opening displacement and induced electric potential in layered cracked structures.

2. Boundary value problems for direct flexoelectricity

In the direct flexoelectricity electro-mechanical fields are coupled by strain gradients. The large strain gradients
can break the inversion symmetry in centrosymmetric crystals. Then, the polarization is observed also in dielectrics.
The constitutive equations for Cauchy stresses  ij , higher-order stresses ijk and electric displacement Di in
dielectric materials (non piezoelectric) can be written as (Hu and Shen, 2009)
 ij = cijkl  kl ,
 jkl =
− fijkl Ei + g jklmnimni
Di aij E j + fijkl jkl ,
= (1)
where aij and cijkl are the permittivity and elastic stiffness tensors, respectively. The direct flexoelectric coefficients
are denoted by fijkl and the higher-order elastic coefficients by gijklmn.
Strains  ij , electric intensity vector E j and strain-gradients ijk can be expressed through displacements ui and
electric potential  , respectively:
(ui, j + u j,i ) / 2, Ej =
ij = −, j , (2)

=
ijk =
ij , k (ui, jk + u j,ik ) / 2 . (3)
In the simplified gradient elasticity, the higher-order elastic parameters g jklmni are reduced to elastic stiffness
coefficients cklmn and one additional internal length material parameter l (Gitman et al., 2010) as g jklmni = l 2li c jkmn .
Similarly two independent parameters f1 and f 2 are used for expression of the direct flexoelectric coefficients fijkl,
(Deng et al. 2017):
1586 Jan Sladek et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 42 (2022) 1584–1590
Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 3

fijkl =f1 jk il + f2 (ijkl + ik  jl ) . (4)

Derivation of governing equations for 2D problems in the direct flexoelectricity can be found in works (Sladek et
al., 2017, Tian et al. 2020):
 ij , j ( x) − ijk , jk ( x) =
0,

Di ,i ( x ) = 0 . (5)

In boundary conditions there are occurred normal derivatives of displacement, traction vector of higher-order of
stresses, electric charge
si :=ui / n =n j ui , j , Ri := nk n j ijk , Q := ni Di , (6)

and the traction vector

i
ti = n j ( ij − ijk ,k ) −  j +  i ( x c )  ( x − x c ) , (7)
x j c

with
i := nk  j ijk , (8)

i ( xc ) : i ( xc - 0) − i ( xc + 0) ,
and the jump at a corner on the oriented boundary contour  is defined as =

and ni and  i are the Cartesian components of the unit normal and tangent vector on boundary, respectively.

3. Finite element methods and results

The principle of virtual work can be applied to get the weak-form of governing equations (5). The variation of the
deformation energy has to equal to the variation of external forces (Sladek et al. 2017, Tian et al. 2020)
V ( ij ui, j + ijk  ui, jk + Di=
,i ) dV t ti ui d  + R Ri si d  + Q Q d  . (9)

The mixed FEM with independent C0 continuous interpolation for both elastic displacements and strains is developed
here. The displacement vector and electric potential in each element are approximated by
u = [ N u (1 ,  2 )]qu
 = [ N (1 ,  2 )]q , (10)
where qu and q are vectors of nodal displacements and electric potential, respectively.
Above expressions can be utilized for approximation of strains and electric intensity vector
 11   1 0 
u 
ε =  22  = 0  2   1  =[ Bu (1 ,  2 )]qu ,
u
 212   2 1   2 
 E   1 
−E = − 1 =   = [ B (1 ,  2 )]q . (11)
 E2   2 
In the mixed FEM, we apply also an independent approximation of strains
εˆ In ( x ) = [α ] p (1 ,  2 ) , (12)
where [] are unknown coefficients, and p (1 ,  2 ) is the polynomial function vector
pT (1 ,  2 ) = 1 1  2 1 2  .
Since two independent approximations of strains given by (11) and (12) have to be equal at selected internal points
ξ c = (1c ,  2c ) , one can derive the final approximation formula
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Jan Sladek et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 42 (2022) 1584–1590 1587

εˆ In = p(1 ,  2 )Lqu (13)

where
( ) (
L = p−1 1c , 2c Bu 1c , 2c ).
Then, the derivatives of strains can be obtained from (13)
 1εˆ Ïn  1p (1 , 2 ) α 
ηˆ In =  p (1 , 2 ) Lqu .
*
=   = (14)
 2εˆ   2p (1 , 2 ) α 
Ïn

Substituting above approximations into variational form (9) and taking into account arbitrariness of the variations
 qu   
and  q , we obtain the system of algebraic equations for unknown nodal quantities

 [ Bu (ξ )] [C ][ Bu (ξ )]qu dV +
T

V
( )
q  dV  [ N u ]T Td  +   Bs  Rd  ,
+  [ B (ξ )]T l 2 [G ][ B ( ξ )]qu  + [ F ]T [ B ( ξ )]=
t R
(15)

V
 [ B (ξ )]
T
([ P] [B (ξ )] + [F ][B (ξ )])q  −[ Π ][B (ξ )]q dV =
T
u  u    [ N ] Qd  ,
Q

T
(16)

where C , G , Π and F represent elastic, higher-order elastic, dielectric and flexoexoelectric matrix coefficients,
respectively.
A straight interface crack between two dissimilar dielectric materials is solved numerically (Fig. 1). A stationary
7
boundary conditions with a pure tension load p0 = 110 ( Pa) are applied on the top and bottom surfaces. Following
geometry is considered: w = 125 10−8 m, lcr = 10 10−8 m , =h 20 10−8 m , hcr= 10 10−8 m . Impermeable electric
boundary conditions are considered on the crack surfaces with a reference value of electric potential at the crack tip,
 = 0 . All other surfaces have vanishing electric charge ni Di = 0 . The higher-order traction Ri = 0 is also vanishing
on all surfaces.

Fig. 1. A symmetric part of the cracked strip under a uniform axial tension

A standard dielectric ceramics (SDC) with following parameters: c110 = 13.9*1010 Pa , c120 = 7.4*1010 Pa ,
0
c22 = 11.5*1010 Pa , c44
0
= 2.56 *1010 Pa , a1=15.1*10-9C(VM)-1, a2=13.0*10-9C(VM)-1 is considered for domain I
(upper layer).
Three various materials are considered in the lower layer (domain II) to investigate influence of dissimilar elastic
properties on behaviour of the interface crack:
1588 Jan Sladek et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 42 (2022) 1584–1590
Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000 5

Material1 - SDC - c11= c011; c12= c012; c22= c022; c44=c044;

Material2 - c11= 2*c011; c12= 2*c012; c22= 2*c022; c44= 2*c044;
Material3 - c11= 5*c011; c12=5*c012; c22= 5*c022; c44= 5*c044.
One can see that Material1 corresponds to a crack problem in a homogeneous body. Two different flexoelectric
coefficients are considered: f1= {10-9; 10-7}C/m , f2=0 and the micro-stiffness length parameter is considered as
l = 10−8 m .

Fig. 2 Variation of the crack displacements along the crack faces for various elastic ratios and flexoelectric
coefficients: a) f1 = 110−9 C / m ; b) f1 = 110−7 C / m

Variations of the crack displacements u 2 along the crack face x1 for various ratios of elastic coefficients in domain I
and II and flexoelectric coeficients f1 = 110−9 C / m and f1 = 110−7 C / m are presented in Fig. 2a and Fig. 2b,
respectively. One can observe almost the same crack opening displacements for different values of flexoelectric
 Jan Sladek et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 42 (2022) 1584–1590 1589
6 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

coefficients. Displacements on the upper crack face are only slightly reduced for larger elastic coefficients in domain
II, however, on the lower crack surface they are reduced significantly in this case.

Fig. 3 Variation of the induced electric potentials along the crack faces for dissimilar elastic materials: SDC &
material2

The induced electric potentials on both crack faces are presented in Fig. 3. The induced potential on the upper crack
face is larger than lower crack face. Potentials are larger for bigger flexoelectric coefficients.

4. Conclusions

The influence of the flexoelectricity on an interface crack between two dissimilar dielectric layers is investigated
numerically. The mixed FEM equations for this problem are developed as the weak formulation of the higher-grade
electro-elasticity. The advantage of this approach is that only C0 continuous elements are sufficient. Displacements
and strains approximations are independently applied and constraints between them are satisfied by collocation inside
of elements. One can observe in numerical examples that crack opening displacements are reduced for larger values
of flexoelectric coefficients. Also the crack opening displacement and the induced electric potential are reduced for
larger values of elastic coefficient in lower layer. The flexoelectric coefficient has a strong influence on cracked
structures and microelectronic structures are to be analysed with taking into the flexoeletric effect .

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support by the Slovak Science and Technology Assistance Agency registered under
number APVV-18-0004 and VEGA-2/0061/20.

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