Failures due to corrosion are common for connectors operating under atmospheric environment. Results of previous studies lacked universal applicability and neglected the degradation process of contact resistance. Also, wear is rarely considered in studies on corrosion degradation, which
is an inevitable mechanical process for plug connectors. Considering these problems, the atmospheric corrosion process and copper dynamics were analyzed. The consistency of the atmospheric corrosion mechanism was used to study the local corrosion degradation law and its influencing factors.
The wear mechanism on corrosion degradation was determined through the analysis of the influencing factors. The corrosion model of the gold-plated parts under atmospheric wear was established. To study the degradation process of electrical contacts, a degradation model of contact resistance
based on the multi-spot contact mechanism was established combined with the previous corrosion degradation model. Experimentally, the corrosion spot density increases as a function of time and varies with plated thickness, whereas the corrosion spot size distribution is still relatively independent
of time. The skew phenomenon appears in the cumulative distribution probability of contact resistance as exposure time increases. Whereas the degradation of electrical contact resistance increases as a function of time, the median remains relatively unchanged. A brief analysis of the contact
reliability under wear and corrosive environments was also carried out.
Initial atmospheric corrosion studies of copper from macroscale to nanoscale in a simulated indoor atmospheric environment
