Articles techniques et présentations

Electrical contacts consists of parts where the surfaces are in contact and where the actual physical contact occur just in a few contact asperity points scattered over the whole apparent contact area. Through these contact spots between the two mating bodies the mechanical load and the electric current is transmitted. Often a soft coating is used to enlarge the real contact area. Modeling the mechanical stress on the contacting material includes nonlinear effects of the electric conduction and heat generation as well as the actual mechanical contact of the asperities. COMSOL Multiphysics has been used to model these thermoelectromechanical phenomena when two surface asperities are in contact.