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.