Numerical Simulation of Thermal Condition of a Low Current Electric Contact

Abstract

Electrical contacts may include various sub-systems or wiring harness connected via detachable connectors which depend on physical contacts for the electrical connectivity. Electrical contacts range from high, medium to low current depending on their usage. However, in the real-life condition, electrical contacts characteristics, especially at the interface, undergoes a gradual change which can be due to corrosion, temperature variation, aging, strained harnesses, discontinuities induced by vibration etc. These changes introduce additional parasitic circuits in the system. Moreover, in some cases where the contact resistance increases due to electrical loses, the local temperature may increase, thereby accelerating contact degradation. This paper presents a numerical analysis on the variation of temperature of a simple low current contact model having a thin oxide film layer at the interface which serves as the ageing factor using finite element method (FEM).