A progressive failure analysis of all-C/SiC composite multi-bolt joints

Abstract

A progressive damage model (PDM) was proposed to analyse the failure of plain-weave carbon fibre-reinforced silicon carbide (C/SiC) composite joints with C/SiC bolts, which were manufactured by the chemical vapour infiltration (CVI) technique. A bilinear constitutive model was established to describe the pseudo-plasticity of the C/SiC composites. Several failure criteria, including the maximum stress failure criterion, Tsai-Wu failure criterion, and Hashin-type criterion, and several material degradation models were compared. Moreover, the deposition models accounting for the deposition effects of CVI in the all-C/SiC composite joints were discussed. A series of comparative failure analyses of a C/SiC open-hole composite laminate with available experimental data in the literature was conducted to determine the most suitable combination of the Hashin-type criterion and the combined material degradation model was filtered for C/SiC composite structures. Based on the PDM, the failure strength and failure pattern of an all-C/SiC composite single-lap, three-bolt joint were predicted. Static tension experiments testing the all-C/SiC composite single-lap, three-bolt joints fabricated by the CVI technique were also conducted. Good consistency between the numerical failure predictions and the experimental outcomes was obtained, indicating the effectiveness of the proposed PDM for failure analyses of all-C/SiC composite multi-bolt joints.