Applications of damage models to durability investigations for electronic connectors

Contact forces between terminals of an electronic connector and the corresponding counterparts play an important role on signal transmission. The mated terminal with insufficient contact force might severely raise electrical resistance and induce intermittence or disconnection of current eventually. The contact force of the terminal could decay dramatically after several thousand mating/unmating cycles. Critical plane approaches are adopted to estimate the service life indicating the number of cycles as the contact force of the terminal degrades beneath the certain value in the present study. Damage parameters based on various criteria are evaluated for the terminal under the cyclic loading conditions. Relationships among the damage parameter, the contact force reduction ratio, and the number of cycles are then constructed by linking numerical results to experimental measurements. It is validated that the Smith–Watson–Topper criterion could be successfully applied to the service life assessment of the terminal.