Effects of frequency on the intermittent failure phenomena of gold-plated electrical contact materials under fretting conditions

The typical characteristics of the change in contact resistance and tangential force with fretting cycles are compared with different fretting frequencies. Intermittent phenomena or short duration discontinuities during each fretting cycle are recorded explicitly. The instantaneous higher contact resistance values that appeared at the contact zones continuously corresponded to the distorted tangential force between contacts. Fretting frequency was determined as the crucial parameter that influenced the intermittent contact resistance. Subsequently, the contact failure mechanism of frictionally heated electrical contacts during high-frequency fretting was explained by introducing the electrical contact theory and thermoelastic instability model.