Through-thickness compressive strength of carbon-phenolic woven composites

Carbon-phenolic woven composites are increasingly employed as the material for the heavy-duty journal bearings. Since the through thickness compressive strength (TTCS) is important for the heavy-duty bearing, in this paper, the effects of lay-up angles and specimen thickness of woven composites on TTCS were investigated for the efficient design of carbon-phenolic woven composite bearings. From the experiments and FEM analysis, it was found that the TTCS of the carbon-phenolic woven composite is much dependent on the stacking sequence rather than composite thickness because different stacking sequence produced much different interlaminar stresses.