Propagation of slip pulse along frictionless contact interface with local separation between two piezoelectric solids

The Stroh formalism of piezoelectric materials, Fourier analysis and singular integral equation technique were used to investigate the existence of a pulse at the frictionless interface in presence of local separation between two contact piezoelectric solids. The two solids were combined together by uniaxial tractions and laid in the electric field. The problem was cast into a set of Cauchy singular integral equations, from which the closed-form solutions were derived. The numerical discussion on the existence of such a slip pulse was presented. The results show that such a slip pulse, which has square root singularities at both ends of the local separation zone, can propagate in most material combinations. And the existence of such a slip pulse will not be affected by the applied mechanical and electric fields in some special material combinations.