Abstract
Automotive connector ageing has been studied in the literature, but none of these studies is completely satisfactory for finding the relation between the insertion force, the contact surface, and the spring deflection and wear after several insertion phases.
The main objective of this work is to find and establish a correlation between insertion parameters and wear behaviour using numerical and experimental approaches. This study is concerned with automotive connectors made of copper with a tin coating of thickness 2 μm. The evolution of the insertion force, spring deflection, and contact surface versus the insertion—extraction operation number will provide information about the connector wear behaviour. Using a microbalance, the mass of the sample was determined before and after the experimental insertion test, to quantify the mass loss and the wear evolution. In addition, the wear shape was analysed. The connector includes four spring lamellae on each side and the pin has a flat shape. Owing to the friction effect and after several insertion—extraction tests, eight tracks are visible. Using a scanning profilometer, the length, the depth, and the width of the track can be measured.
At the same time, a numerical analysis using the finite element code Ansys is used with an elastoplastic behaviour law to find the fatigue law, to measure the contact surface, and to predict the wearing surface for the materials employed, which can support a long connector use period. The selected assumptions introduced in the numerical modelling lead to a good correlation with the experimental results.
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