Electrical contact behavior of rough surface coating/substrate systems

ABSTRACT Low and stable contact resistance in the field of electrical contact plays a critical role in improving the reliability and electrical life of electrical products. The purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of coating parameter on the electrical contact behavior of rough surface coating/substrate systems, and to propose a numerical strategy based on the electromechanical coupling effect to simulate the electrical contact characteristics. From this, a multi-field coupled finite element model is proposed to analyze the evolution of contact stresses and contact resistance between electrical contacts, and to built a contact resistance model associated with coating compositional parameter. The accuracy of the contact model is verified by a comparative analysis of experimental and simulation results. This finding provides a theoretical basis for the scientific assessment of coating/substrate systems of electrical equipment.