Abstract
The pin bearing strength is one of the most important design parameters for mechanical joints composed of fiber reinforced composites. Thus the effect of the edge distance and the width of specimen on the pin-bearing strength of unidirectional CFRP composites were experimentally investigated in this paper. As results, the failure modes and the pin bearing strength of mechanical joints turned out to depend on the edge distance and also the width of specimen. The failure of specimen with low ratio of width to hole diameter was caused by the net tension from the hole boundary, on the other hand, the failure of specimen with low ratio of edge distance to hole diameter was caused by the shear-out. The bearing strength in case of the failure by shear-out was quite lower than that in case of failure by net tension.
