Fretting Corrosion Behavior of Silver-Plated Electric Connectors with Constant Displacement Amplitude

Abstract

Fretting corrosion tests are conducted with a constant displacement amplitude using silver-plated brass coupons to investigate the effect of contact pressure on fretting corrosion. Three behaviors are identified based on the change in electric resistance and friction coefficient during the fretting test period, and the identified behaviors are dependent on the magnitude of the applied load. The failure cycle (Nf) with an electric resistance of 0.1 D cannot be achieved due to the adhesion behavior of the metal and metal contact under the higher applied load of 0.45 N. This suggests that an average contact pressure higher than 159 MPa for the silver-coated connector is desirable to gain an almost infinite lifetime. The relationship between the electric contact resistance (R) and the average contact pressure (p) can be written as p = 106.2 × Ω −1.5 .