Adhesive joining of composite journal bearings to back-up metals

Composite journal bearings are becoming popular for marine applications because they eliminate the possibility of seizure to steel journals, which is a drawback of white metal bearings. However, a reliable joining method for composite bearings to steel housings is required. In this work, hybrid composite journal bearings composed of carbon/phenolic and glass/epoxy laminated composites were manufactured with different stacking sequences and adhesively bonded to steel housings. The effect of deformations of the composite bearings due to thermal residual stresses on the adhesive joint performance was estimated with respect to stacking sequence by finite element method, and compared to the experimental results. From the measured and experimental results, it was found that the outward radial deformation of the composite bearings was beneficial to the adhesively bonded joint strength of the hybrid composite journal bearing.