Abstract
Electrical contacts involve complicated electrical, thermal, and mechanical phenomena. Fretting wear as a surface damage mechanism significantly weakens the performance of electrical contact components. In this study, a numerical approach is developed to investigate the electrical-thermal-mechanical-wear coupling behavior of electrical contacts. An electrical contact conductance law is used with the current conservation model to evaluate the electrical behavior. A transient heat transfer model, including the Joule heating behavior and a thermal contact conductance law, is employed to calculate the temperature field. Both contact conductance laws are related to the contact pressure distribution obtained by the contact stress analysis. Based on the predicted contact stress and relative slip on contact surfaces, the energy wear model is used to study the evolution of fretting wear depth and contact surface geometry. The material properties in these models are temperature-dependent. The proposed numerical approach is implemented in a finite element modeling of electrical contacts, which is validated by comparing the predicted and experimental results of the wear scar profile. The effects of the fretting wear on the electric potential, current density, contact resistance, temperature, and contact pressure are numerically studied.
Highlights
Electrical contacts are widely used to transmit electrical energy and signals in electrical and electronic devices
Zhang et al [28] incorporated the energy wear model in the finite element modeling to evaluate the influences of contact geometry on the fretting wear, fatigue, and cyclic plasticity behavior of Ti-6Al-4V
All the models are incorporated in a finite element modeling of electrical contacts to evaluate the coupling relationship among electrical, thermal, mechanical, and wear behavior
Summary
Electrical contacts are widely used to transmit electrical energy and signals in electrical and electronic devices. It is difficult to obtain the distributions and evolutions of internal variables including current density, electric potential, contact pressure, temperature and wear scar geometry by experimental methods. The Archard wear model [21] was firstly developed and used to investigate variations of wear volume and contact surface geometry This model has been incorporated into the finite element method to evaluate wear-induced stress evolution and its effect on the fretting fatigue behavior of Ti-6Al-4V [22,23,24]. Zhang et al [28] incorporated the energy wear model in the finite element modeling to evaluate the influences of contact geometry on the fretting wear, fatigue, and cyclic plasticity behavior of Ti-6Al-4V. All the models are incorporated in a finite element modeling of electrical contacts to evaluate the coupling relationship among electrical, thermal, mechanical, and wear behavior
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