Effects of interfacial discontinuity on the fracture behavior in the superconductor-substrate system

This study concerns a two-dimensional model and the corresponding virtual crack closure technique (VCCT) implemented to solve the general boundary value problems that may explain why interface discontinuity has effects on the fracture behavior in the superconductor-substrate system. The interfacial discontinuity can be classified according to the material properties’ continuity and their derivatives’ continuity at the interface. For nonhomogeneous superconductor and substrate specimens with various material properties, a VCCT method is developed to calculate their fracture behavior. Furthermore, the effects of applied magnetic field amplitude and nonhomogeneous parameters are extensively and parametrically studied in two activation processes (zero-field cooling and field cooling). The integrative and computational study presented here provide a fundamental mechanistic understanding of the fracture mechanism in the superconductor-substrate system and sheds light on the rational design of interfacial continuity. Keywords: Superconductor-substrate system, Interfacial discontinuity, Fracture behavior, Activation processes