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Detection of Electric Contact Resistance Variations in Automotive Connectors | IEEE Journals & Magazine | IEEE Xplore

Detection of Electric Contact Resistance Variations in Automotive Connectors


Abstract:

Car manufacturers have to size electric and electronic systems to avoid the risk of short circuits while, at the same time, ensuring a viable economic balance. In other w...Show More

Abstract:

Car manufacturers have to size electric and electronic systems to avoid the risk of short circuits while, at the same time, ensuring a viable economic balance. In other words, the copper mass must be sufficient for safety reasons but not excessive for cost reasons. It is, thus, necessary to monitor the critical points of the electric architecture in order to make an appropriate decision to maintain a high level of safety. However, due to physical and economic constraints, direct temperature measurement of these critical points is seldom possible. Moreover, temperature monitoring at these points would not allow one to determine whether the rise in temperature was related to degradation of the contact or whether it was due to the generation of thermal power by another component. The objective of this paper is, thus, to propose a new method to monitor critical points of the electric architecture that does not require direct measurements. In order to achieve this objective, an electrothermal model of the architecture was developed, and a diagnosis method was used. The method was applied to detect abnormal variations in the contact resistance inside a connector, which is a critical point commonly encountered in the electrothermal chain of automotive vehicles. The efficiency of the algorithm was evaluated on a dedicated test bench. The proposed approach is able to detect a deviation of about 10% in the contact resistance, thus validating the proposed methodology.
Published in: IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics ( Volume: 64, Issue: 12, December 2017)
Page(s): 9469 - 9476
Date of Publication: 02 June 2017

ISSN Information:


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