Influence of Cable Vibrations on Connectors Used in Automotive Applications

In order to determine the influence of cable vibrations on the contact resistance of connectors, the cable resonant frequency and the resulting movement of both parts of the connector have been studied. The increase of contact voltage, followed by rapidfluctuations generated by wear particles, has been analysed. A test bench designed to monitor wire vibrations was used while the transferred amplitude was measured by a high sensitivity displacement sensor. The contact interface was made of copper alloy and tin coated. The connector was connected to a resistive power supplytransmitting different currents and voltage values. Two investigations were performed on the contact voltage measured with a fast sampling oscilloscope which enabled histograms and a Fast FourierTransform analysis to be obtained. The appearance of contact fluctuations observed during the fretting generated by cable vibrations, and depending upon the wear effect, is attributed toelectromechanical phenomena. Some slow fluctuations are well correlated to the vibration period while the rapid ones are linked to an electrical conduction perturbation in the granular interface caused by the connector movement.