Analysis of multiple axisymmetric annular cracks in a piezoelectric medium

An axisymmetric annular electric dislocation is defined. The solution of axisymmetric electric and Volterra climb and glide dislocations in an infinite transversely isotropic piezoelectric domain is obtained by means of Hankel transforms. The distributed dislocation technique is used to construct integral equations for a system of co-axial annular cracks with so-called permeable and impermeable electric boundary conditions on the crack faces where the domain is under axisymmetric electromechanical loading. These equations are solved numerically to obtain dislocation densities on the crack surfaces. The dislocation densities are employed to determine field intensity factors for a system of interacting annular and/or penny-shaped cracks.