Wear analysis and verification of metallic terminals for electronic connectors

Insertion/withdrawal forces of metallic terminals of audio-jack electronic connectors usually decrease significantly with increasing mating/unmating cycles. One of major mechanisms causing such a phenomenon could be due to wear performed on the terminals. In this study, fatigue failure of the terminals is defined as either the insertion force or the withdrawal force going beyond the range of the corresponding specification requirements, and a finite element analysis is carried out to assess the durability of the terminals. Elastic–plastic copper alloys with assumptions of isotropy and isotropic hardening for the terminal materials are adopted in the analysis. The Archard model is used to account for abrasions as a function of contact pressure, sliding distance, and hardness. The user subroutine UMESHMOTION integrated in the commercial package ABAQUS is coded to control the movement of the contact surfaces. Variations of the insertion/withdrawal force over 20,000 mating/unmating cycles are efficiently obtained by introducing multiplication factors into the simulations. Calculation results are further validated by the associated experimental measurements.