Abstract—Connector was composed of a female and male
part which induced vibrations from the vehicle might lead to
relative movements between these two parts. A relative
movement of the contact zone between these two parts can lead
to an irreversible mechanical degradation and an electrical
perturbation by the formation of a third-body layer at the
contact zone. This was the fretting corrosion phenomenon in
electrical contact, which depends of the contact materials used,
the atmosphere in which the connectors were used, and
mechanical parameters (contact force, material hardness …).
For economic reasons, the tin was used for coating to protect the
substrate made of copper. In the air, the oxygen reacts with soft
tin and forms a hard and brittle layer of tin oxides at the surface,
which become remains under vibration stresses.
Our study is about the measurement of electrical behavior of
metallic connectors in two atmospheres: air and nitrogen as an
inert gas. When a connector is tested in air atmosphere, a
typical increase of the contact voltage amplitude was obtained.
On the other hand, a nitrogen gas atmosphere leads to the
contact voltage decrease. The change of the contact voltage
highlights the ejection and the production of remains which
were not so well understand. The study of the contact voltage
provides new information about the degradation, to understand
the fretting-corrosion phenomena.
Index Terms—Automotive connectors, fretting corrosion,
electrical contact, nitrogen gas.
R. El Abdi and J. Labbéis are with Institut de Physique de Rennes. UMR
6251 UR1 CNRS- Université de Rennes1, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France
(e-mail: relabdi@ univ-rennes1.fr).
F. Le Strat is with Entreprise Renault, DEA-TCM, 78084 Guyancourt,
France
[PDF]
Cite: R. El Abdi, J. Labbé, and F. Le Strat, "Electrical Behavior of Connectors under Different
Atmospheres," International Journal of Modeling and Optimization vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 51-54, 2019.
