J O U R N A L O F M AT E R I A L S S C I E N C E L E T T E R S 1 6 ( 1 9 9 7 ) 9 9 3 9 9 5

Bearing failure in plain woven C=C composites

HIROSHI TSUDA, JUN TAKAHASHI
National Institute of Materials and Chemical Research, AIST, MITI, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan

Joining has been commonly employed in assembling

composite structures [1]. Joining can be classified
into two types: bonded and mechanically fastened.
Bonded joining is prone to be weakend by environmental effects, although it has the advantage of low
stress concentration and low weight. Thus, mechanically fastened joining are applied to structures which
are used in severe environments.
The bearing failure in carbon fibre-reinforced
plastics (CFRP) has been well investigated [28].
Mechanical fasteners fail in bearing, shear, and
tension modes. The failure characteristics at the
fastener strongly depend upon the material, ply
orientation, laminate thickness, joint geometry, etc.
From the structural design point of view, bearing
failure is desirable because of its stable fracture
propagation. Hence the bearing strength, i.e., the
strength when bearing failure occurs, has been
applied to the standard for design. The bearing
strength can be estimated under the condition of
fully developed bearing failure. The full bearing
failure occurs only when the width-to-pin diameter
ratio, w= D and edge distance-to-pin diameter ratio,
e= D, are above certain minimum values. According
to Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) K 7080, which
standardizes testing methods for bearing strength of
CFRP [9], the use of specimens with w= D > 6 and
e= D > 5 is recommended to fully develop bearing
failure.
In the present study, we focused on the bearing
failure in carbon fibre-reinforced carbon matrix
(C=C) composites. C=C composites are promising
structural materials for high temperature applications
owing to their high specific strength and rigidity as
well as excellent thermal and chemical stability [10,
11]. The mechanically fastened joining, that shows
greater environmental resistance, would be applied
when assembling C=C composites structures. To the
authors knowledge the bearing failure of C=C
composites has not been well investigated. The
objective of the present study is to investigate the
failure characteristics of C=C composites under pin

loading. The bearing strength tests were performed

using plain woven C=C composites with different
w= D and e= D values. The influence of w= D and
e= D on the failure modes was investigated.
The plain woven C=C composites provided by
Owada Carbon Co. Ltd. were used as test materials.
The heat treatment temperature during the manufacturing process was 1873 K and the volume fraction
of the fibre is 0.6. The constituent materials and
mechanical properties at room temperature are listed
in Table I. The test specimens were cut to give
rectangular solids and then a 6 mm diameter hole
was drilled and reamed. Fig. 1 shows the specimen
configuration along with notations used in the
present study. The thickness of specimens, t, was
3 mm. Geometrical parameters, w= D and e= D were
varied from 1.5 to 5 and from 1 to 3, respectively.
The bearing strength tests without lateral constraint
were performed in accordance with JIS K 7080. The
diameter of the loading pin, D, was 6 mm. The
specimens were pin-loaded at the crosshead speed of
8.33 m s1 in ambient atmosphere. The bearing
strength, bf , was estimated from
bf

max
PDt

(1)

where Pmax is the maximum load during bearing

strength test. The damaged area was observed with a
soft X-ray microscope.
The influence of w= D and e= D on failure modes
is shown in Fig. 2. The failure modes were identified
from visual observation. Three types of failure mode
were demonstrated by varying w= D and e= D. The
bearing failure was demonstrated in specimens with
w= D > 2 and e= D . 2. The X-ray micrographs of
damaged areas in bearing, shear and tension modes
are shown in Fig. 3a to c, respectively. The dark
areas corresponds to the damaged areas.
The change in bearing stress with w= D is shown
in Fig. 4. The bearing stress was estimated from
Equation 1. Note the case of e= D 3 in which the
failure mode was shifted from tension to bearing as

TA B L E I Constituent materials and mechanical properties of plain woven C=C composites

Besfight1 HTA

Reinforcing fibres
Matrix
Composites

0261-8028

# 1997 Chapman & Hall

Base
Densification
Density, g cm3
Youngs modulus, GPa
Shear modulus, GPa
Tensile strength, MPa
Poissons ratio

Phenolic resin
Coal tar pitch
1.5
92.1
9.32
155
8.75 3 102

993

Loading direction

e
6

72

/mm

Edge distance-to-pin diameter ratio, e /D

Figure 1 Geometry of bearing strength test specimens.

2
3
4
5
Width-to-pin diameter ratio, w /D

Figure 2 Failure mode map of plain woven C=C composites; u

bearing failure, d tension failure, r shear failure.

w= D increased. There is a knee in the relation

between bearing stress and w= D when w= D is 2.5.
The bearing stress is saturated at 125 MPa when
w= D is above 2.5. It can be inferred that the bearing
failure was fully developed in the specimens with
w= D > 2:5. Thus, the bearing strength, which must
be estimated under the condition of fully developed
bearing failure, was estimated to be 125 MPa.
The influence of e= D on bearing stress is shown in
994

Figure 3 X-ray micrographs of damaged areas in tested specimens.

(a) bearing failure (w= D 4, e= D 3), (b) shear failure (w= D 5,
e= D 2), (c) tension failure (w= D 1:5, e= D 2).

150

Bearing stress, (MPa)

Bearing stress, (MPa)

150

100

50

100

50

0
1

2
3
4
5
Width-to-pin diameter ratio, w /D

Figure 4 Change in bearing stress with w= D; d e= D 3, r e= D 2,

u e= D 1:5, n e= D 1.

Fig. 5. Note the case of w= D > 2:5 where the failure

mode was shifted from shear to bearing. The bearing
stress should reach a plateau of 125 MPa as e= D
increases because bearing failure was demonstrated
in the specimens with e= D 3. In order to estimate
the critical value of e= D that induces bearing failure
the regression line of bearing stresses for specimens
with w= D > 2:5 and e= D < 2, where shear failure
occurred, was determined. The value of e= D at the
intersection of the regression line and the bearing
strength of 125 MPa would correspond to the
minimum value of e= D that induces bearing failure.
As shown in Fig. 5, the value of e= D at the
intersection is 2.5.
From the consideration described above, it can be
concluded that the bearing failure of plain woven
C=C composites was fully developed in the specimens with w= D > 2:5 and e= D > 2:5.

Acknowledgements
The authors thank Dr Kiyoshi Kemmochi for several
helpful discussions and Jun Watanabe for experimental assistance.

1
2
3
Edge distance-to-pin diameter ratio, e /D

Figure 5 Change in bearing stress with e= D; s w= D 5, u w= D 4

e w= D 3, d w= D 2:5, j w= D 2, r w= D 1:5. The dotted
and solid lines correspond to the bearing strength of 125 MPa and the
regression line of bearing stresses for specimens with w= D > 2:5 and
e= D < 2, respectively.

References
1. F. L . M AT T H E W S and R . D. R AW L I N G S , in Composite

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

Materials: Engineering and Science (Chapman & Hall,

London, 1994) p. 392.
T. A . C O L L I N G S , Composites 8 (1977) 43.
E . W G O DW I N and F. L . M AT T H E W S , ibid. 11 (1980)
155.
T. A . C O L L I N G S , ibid. 13 (1982) 241.
T. A . C O L L I N G S and M . J. B E AU C H A M P, ibid. 15
(1984) 33.
M . A K AY, ibid. 23 (1992) 101.
H . M A I K U M A and K . K U B O M U R A , J. Soc. Mater. Sci.
Jpn. 41 (1992) 1114.
H . WA N G , C . H U N G and F. C H A N G , J. Compos. Mater.
30 (1996) 1284.
Japanese Industrial Standards Committee, JIS K 7080
(Japanese Standards Association, Tokyo, 1991).
J. D. B U C K L E Y, Ceram. Bull. 67 (1988) 364.
G . S AVA G E , in Carbon-Carbon Composites (Chapman &
Hall, London, 1993) p. 323.

Received 2 January
and accepted 11 March 1997

995