Abstract
A three-dimensional coupled thermoelectromechanical model for electrical connectors is here proposed to evaluate local stress and temperature distributions around the contact area of electric connectors under different applied loads. A micromechanical numerical model has been developed by merging together the contact theory approach, which makes use of the so-called roughness parameters obtained from experimental measurements on real contact surfaces, with the topology description of the rough surface via the theory of fractal geometry. Particularly, the variation of asperities has been evaluated via the Weierstrass-Mandelbrot function. In this way the micromechanical model allowed for an upgraded contact algorithm in terms of effective contact area and thermal and electrical contact conductivities. Such an algorithm is subsequently implemented to construct a global model for performing transient thermoelectromechanical analyses without the need of simulating roughness asperities of contact surfaces, so reducing the computational cost. A comparison between numerical and analytical results shows that the adopted procedure is suitable to simulate the transient thermoelectromechanical response of electric connectors.
Highlights
Several engineering applications involve connections where the electrical contact relies on a relatively weak pressure, able to ensure a partial adhesion between two elements
A micromechanical numerical model has been developed by merging together the contact theory approach, which makes use of the so-called roughness parameters obtained from experimental measurements on real contact surfaces, with the topology description of the rough surface via the theory of fractal geometry
The real contact surfaces are not flat but include many asperities [1]; contacts occur in a number nc of small surfaces named aspots, so that the effective contact area Ac is much smaller than the apparent, macroscopic, contact one Aa (Figure 1)
Summary
Several engineering applications involve connections where the electrical contact relies on a relatively weak pressure, able to ensure a partial adhesion between two elements. Numerical simulations of electrical contacts can be conducted in agreement with the contact theory [5] which, in general, is able to evaluate only the apparent contact area Ac, possibly overestimating the electrical and the thermal connection; for example, in [6, 7] the electromechanical contact has been evaluated by considering a micro-macro approach where Ac has been statistically defined. An analytical-numerical comparison is carried out to validate this procedure, considering a classic case of a cylinder and a hemisphere in contact under different compression loads Such problems may undergo instability [18,19,20], which would require a local investigation of the stress field in large strains [21,22,23,24]; this topic is not addressed in the present micro-macro approach, under the assumption that the compressive load does not generate buckling
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