Fracture toughening and toughness asymmetry induced by flexoelectricity
Author (s): Abdollahi, A.; Peco, C.; Millán, D.; Arroyo, M.; Catalan, G.; Arias, I.Journal: Physical Review B
Volume: 92
Date: 2015
Abstract:
Cracks generate the largest strain gradients that any material can withstand. Flexoelectricity (coupling between strain gradient and polarization) must therefore play an important role in fracture physics. Here we use a self-consistent continuum model to evidence two consequences of flexoelectricity in fracture: the resistance to fracture increases as structural size decreases, and it becomes asymmetric with respect to the sign of polarization. The latter phenomenon manifests itself in a range of intermediate sizes where piezo- and flexoelectricity compete. In BaTiO3 at room temperature, this range spans from 0.1 to 50 nm, a typical thickness range for epitaxial ferroelectric thin films
Bibtex:
@article{SZ-ZDMH:15,
Author = {Sergio Zlotnik and Pedro D\'{\i}ez and David Modesto and Antonio Huerta},
Title = {{P}roper {G}eneralized {D}ecomposition of a geometrically parametrized heat problem with geophysical applications},
Fjournal = {International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering},
Journal = {Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng.},
Volume = {},
Number = {},
Pages = {},
Year = {2015},
Note = {10.1002/nme.4909}
} 
