Prognosis of Power Connector Disconnect and High Resistance Faults

With recent technology developments, the number of electrical subsystems and components in a typical vehicle has significantly increased. Electrical power is delivered to the subsystems and components through power wires and connectors, which may become loose or corroded. A loose connector may cause the electrical subsystem or component to disconnect intermittently from its power supply, while a corroded connector introduces high resistance that causes voltage drop at the inputs of the electrical subsystem or component. This paper develops prognosis solutions for power connector disconnect and high resistance faults. For the power connector disconnect fault, a canary-based approach is utilized to detect looseness in the power connector, where a relatively inexpensive secondary connector is attached to the main connector. The secondary connector has shorter contact length than the main power connector, and, hence, as the main connector becomes loose (but still connected electrically), the secondary connector disconnects to provide early warnings. For detecting high resistance in power connectors, power conservation laws are utilized so that additional hardware (i.e., sensors) is not required. Experiments illustrating the developed solutions are conducted considering power connectors of an electric power steering (EPS) system. The results show that early warning of considered power connector faults can be raised before subsystem or component failure. Although the solutions are presented assuming vehicle subsystems and components, the developed methods are applicable to any electrical subsystem or component connected to a power source.