Wear of Electrical Contacts due to Small-amplitude Motion

The “IBM wear model,” which has previously been used to describe the wear of electrical contacts as a result of gross sliding motion, is used to describe contact wear in the case of small-amplitude sliding motion. This model was applied to a particular contact configuration on which a series of wear tests was performed. The empirical results of the tests are compared to the theoretical expressions and good agreement is found, thus indicating that the wear mechanism is essentially the same for both large- and small-amplitude sliding contact.