Multi-physics electrical contact analysis considering the electrical resistance and Joule heating

Abstract

A multi-physics electrical contact model is developed to predict the contact pressure, temperature, and electric current density (ECD) distributions on the contact surface. The theoretical model takes the interfacial electrical resistance and its resultant Joule heating into account. The contact pressure and contact radius are calculated by solving the first kind of Cauchy singular integral equation. The temperature and ECD are obtained based on the obtained contact pressure. Then, a three-dimensional finite element model is established to simulate the mechanical, thermal, and electrical behaviors of electrical contact. The finite element model can consider both the interfacial electrical resistance and the constriction electrical resistance. The theoretical results of the electrical contact behaviors are compared with the numerical results. The influences of the electrical resistance, normal force, electric potential, and distribution form of the heat flux on the contact pressure, temperature, and ECD distributions are investigated. The results indicate that the proposed multi-physics contact model can provide an accurate prediction of electrical contact behaviors.