Evaluation method of electrical connector performance based on intermittent failure

Abstract

With the degradation of electrical connector performance, the intermittent failure (IF) may occur in connector when subject to vibration, thermal and humidity stress. Intermittent failure is generally a precursor to a permanent fault (PF). During the whole life cycle of the electrical connector. The dynamic parameters such as frequency and duration of intermittent failure, evolve continuously with time. And the dynamics of intermittent failure show the correlation with the electrical connector performance. Therefore, based on dynamics of intermittent failure, a novel evaluation method for electrical connector performance is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the reliable theory stress-strength interference (SSI) model is introduced to analysis the mechanism of intermittent failure. And the intermittent failure rate (γIF) is derived according to mechanism of intermittent failure. Secondly, the occurrence process of environmental stress is modeled using renewal process in this paper. Through the occurrence process of environmental stress and intermittent failure rate, the dynamic characteristic of intermittent failure occurring number can be obtained. By investigating the correlation between the number of intermittent failure and degradation, the evaluation method of electrical contact performance based on intermittent failure occurring numbers and the evaluation method of electrical contact performance based on duplicating of intermittent failure are presented separately. At last, a monte Carlo simulation method is carried on to verifies the effectiveness of the proposed evaluation methods.