Computational Modeling of Electrical Contact Crimping and Mechanical Strength Analysis

Several thousands electrical connections are necessary in airplanes. Electrical cables are joined to contacts using manual crimping devices in industrial plants. When mechanical defects appear, the replacement of the defective connections has to be made directly on the airplane. This operation is difficult and time-consuming due to reduced accessibility, making it very costly. The aim of this paper is to simulate the crimping operation and then evaluate the mechanical strength of the obtained connection in order to identify, understand and eliminate defects due to unsatisfactory crimping operations. Material behavior data is accessed through mechanical testing performed on cables and contact; accurate material data is mandatory to improve the accuracy of the simulation results. The Forge® software is used to perform the numerical simulation to predict the stress and strain distribution as well as the crimping force during crimping operations. Resulting mechanical strength of the joint is also analysed using numerical simulation. Experimental and numerical results are then compared.