Prediction of electrical contact endurance subject to micro-slip wear using friction energy dissipation approach

Fretting wear is a common cause of failure of an electrical contact (EC). In this study, we analyzed in detail the failure of EC induced especially by sliding using the representative electrical terminals. Furthermore, combining the friction energy dissipation theory, we proposed a prediction model to evaluate the electrical connector endurance (ECE) based on the contact stress and geometrical changes during the wear process obtained from a numerical model. The study helps establish that the friction energy dissipation theory is a powerful tool to analyze a contact failure due to wear. The proposed model proves to be effective in predicting the ECE for all considered cases such as micro-slip amplitude, contact force, overturning angle, superficial layer thickness, and friction/wear coefficients.