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Intermittent failure analysis of electronic wire cable: Finite element analysis

Conference Paper · December 2014

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 Intermittent failure analysis of electronic wire cable: Finite element analysis
Leong K.H
School of Mechanical Engineering
University Sains Malaysia
Nibong Tebal 14300, Penang, Malaysia
karhheng@gmail.com
R.H.A Latiff
School of Mechanical Engineering
University Sains Malaysia
Nibong Tebal 14300, Penang, Malaysia
rizmanhariz@gmail.com
Abstract - This paper presents a case study in
failure analysis of a wire cable assembly used
in an electronic audio communication device.
The failure was intermittent audio signal in
transmit and received application of an
electronic radio frequency (RF)
communication device. A finite element
analysis has been used to model the wire
assembly in a typical tensile loading under the
effects of surface defects and residual stress on
the strength of the copper conductors. The
result obtained in this analysis was compared
to an earlier experimental analysis to identify
the load at which intermittent failure will occur.
A series of intermittent failure load was
proposed for a variation of surface defect in
terms of notches and level of residual
compressive displacement shrink-fit to the wire
copper conductors.
Keywords— Failure analysis, Intermittent
contact, Copper wires, Finite element analysis
1. Introduction
Intermittent audio signal occurs due to the
temporary break in circuit continuity, resulting in
signal fluctuation and unwanted signal noise.
Depending on the applications, intermittent failure
in electronics products is a critical issue
particularly for electronics products used in public
and military enforcers and search and rescue
F.Yusof
School of Mechanical Engineering
University Sains Malaysia
Nibong Tebal 14300, Penang, Malaysia
mefeizal@usm.my
Ooi C.C
Motorola Solutions Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.
Plot 2, Bayan Lepas Technoplex Industrial Park
Mukim 12 SWD 11900, Penang, Malaysia
ChinChin.Ooi@motorolasolutions.com
operatives. Based on an experimental
investigation from [1], it has been highlighted that
intermittent failure of wire cable assembly was
contributed by surface defects in the form of dents
and notches. Additionally, it was discovered that
the effect of the defects on the mechanical
strength of the wires was made severe by a
compressive conditions imposed by the cable
jacket and the insulation polymer of the wire. This
is a second of the two papers which describe a
detail numerical analysis of the experimental
analysis. This paper describes the analysis of the
same problem by finite element analysis which
attempts to understand the effects of surface
defects and residual stress on the strength of wire
cables assembly under a typical tensile loading
condition.
2. Finite Element Analysis
The structure of the wire cable which
composed of 7 set of independent wires of which
each set is packed between outer cable jacket and
inner core filler has been given by [1]. The core
filler is a combination of nylon strands and Kevlar
strands. The copper conductors which responsible
for intermittent audio is enclosed inside the wire
as intermediate layer between insulation and
Kevlar. Total 49 strands of conductors are found
in a single wire for signal transmission. Table 1
shows the details on the construction and
designated components of the wire cable.
Table 1. Details of wire cable components has been used to study the wire cable components
following a manufacturer’s design specification and assembly. A Cartesian co-ordinate system
centered at the cylindrical geometry of the wires
Component Cross-sectional Materials is used such that the in-plane dimensions refer to
lists diameter (mm) the cross-section of the wires and the out-of-plane
1. Conductor 0.53 Copper is the direction of applied load. A tensile load is
26AWG applied at a free end of the model while the
opposite end is constrained in the z-axis direction
2. Insulation 0.93 Hyrtel
leaving the x-axis and the y-axis to move freely.
3. Kevlar 0.15 Kavlar 200D In the present finite element formulation, the
materials response in this model for each of the
4. Jacket 5.45 Alcryn®
components can be idealized as a Power law fit
2080K
with a linear elastic combination as:
𝜎 (1)
A 3-D finite element model of the components 𝜀𝑒 = ; 𝜎 < 𝜎𝑦
𝐸
that made up the wire cable assembly is shown in
𝜀𝑦
Fig. 1. 𝜀𝑒𝑝 = ( 𝑛 ) 𝜎 𝑛 ; 𝜎 ≥ 𝜎𝑦
𝜎𝑦
where 𝜀𝑦 is yield strain, 𝜎𝑦 is yield strength and 𝑛
is strain hardening coefficient. The stress-strain
relation is generalized for multi-axial stress state
of stress using the Mises yield criterion and an
associated flow rule to describe incremental
plasticity. To characterize the damage initiation
for each material, fracture strain in function of
stress triaxiality had been adopted. Stress
Fig 1. Cross-section of an assembly model of wire triaxiality, is expressed as the ratio of mean
cable and finite element mesh stress, 𝜎𝑚 to the equivalent Mises stress, 𝑞.
The geometries of the wire cable are 𝜂 = − (𝜎𝑚 /𝑞) (2)
modeled with first order eight-noded brick
elements with reduced integration (C3D8R). An After the damage is initiated, strain
identical mesh structure is repeated from the softening began. To reduce the mesh dependency
origin of the geometries (x, y) = (0, 0) toward the after damage based on strain localization, a stress-
wire length, z (1/10 of the experimented wire displacement response characterized by damage
length scale). To introduce localized residual parameter, 𝑑 and equivalent plastic displacement,
stress (due to cable jacket and insulation 𝑢̅̇𝑝𝑙 is introduced. Before damage initiation, 𝑢̅̇𝑝𝑙 =
shrinkage on to the copper conductors) in terms of 0. Once the damage initiation criterion is fulfilled
radial displacement derived from the reduced where fracture strain is reached, the plastic
cross sectional area of center hole (reduction displacement, 𝑢̅̇𝑝𝑙 , is defined with the evolution
percentage of 5, 10 and 15%) is applied on the equation:
inner surface of cable jacket. The shrinkage of 𝑢̅̇𝑝𝑙 = 𝐿𝜀̅̇𝑝𝑙 (3)
cable jacket is carried out on the middle section of
cable jacket. where L is the characteristic length of the element
An elastic-plastic non-linear damage and 𝜀̅̇𝑝𝑙 is the equivalent plastic strain. Damage
modeling described in [2] and implemented in [3] parameter, 𝑑 is computed through:
 𝜎 = (1 − 𝑑)𝜎̅ (4) described in Table 2. More importantly, friction
exists in contacts between components is shown
𝜎 is given as the actual true stress and 𝜎̅ is the true
to be significant on the tensile strength of
stress in undamaged response. The undamaged
conductors in wire. The resulted stress
response for material is predicted by extrapolating
concentration from friction contact reduces the
the true stress-true strain curve after necking,
amount of tensile stress needed to reach failure
using a Power law fit.
stress of conductor.

4. Results and Discussions

Simulating the tensile behaviour of
individual components, comparison of
experimental tensile loading curves from [1] and
finite element (FE) analysis is made in Fig 2. The
FE results can well simulate deformation
behaviour even after necking up to failure region.
The fracture characteristics of Kevlar and
conductor are also included in FE model.
Agreements between the test results and FE ones
are good up with the difference maintained
consistently within 1%.

Fig 3. Load-extension data of wire from

experimental and FE result
Table 2. Descriptions of stages occurred during
tensile test on wire

Stages
A-B
B-C
C-D
Fig 2. Comparison of experiment load-extension
D-E
data with FE results of components
Following the result of wire in Fig 3, it E-F
shows that the wire from FE is capable of
simulating similar tensile behavior as shown by
the wire used in experiment. Similar stages (A-F)
are exhibited by FE model in tensile analysis as
Details
Represents elastic tensile behavior of wire.
Point B is the breakage point of Kevlar
strand.
Progressive failure process of Kevlar strand.
Strain hardening process of conductor.
Point D marks the initiation of conductor
failure.
Progressive failure process of conductor.
Kevlar strand and conductor have broken
completely, leaving only insulation
continues to elongate under tensile load.
 A path is also defined across the radius of
wire cable assembly, denoted as 𝑥0 to examine the
resultant residual stress distribution. As shown in
Fig 4, the stress occurred in the components, 𝜎 is
compared to the yield strength of conductor,
𝜎0(𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟) to provide quantitative measurement
of residual stress relative to the stress that initiates
plastic deformation in conductor. It is determined
that peak stresses happen at the interface of
components, caused by the reaction forces when
the components are compressed against filler core.
The residual stress in components, specifically
cable jacket and nylon are significantly lower than
other components due to their rigid behavior
under tensile load. The stresses in conductor at
right region, is 17% higher than its left region,
providing higher chance for failure to occur in this
region. In this analysis, the residual stress is found
hardly to exceed the yield strength of conductor,
except under extreme condition (15% of area
reduction in cable jacket).
Fig 4. Plot of σ⁄σ0(conductor) against x⁄x0
FE results of electrical wire cable without
localized residual stress is shown in Fig 5 and
compared with experimental results from [1].
Several experimental results as shown in Fig 5 are
used. Those discrepancies in the elongation of test
specimen are due to geometric flaws present in
wire cable. This can be ascribed to the non-
uniform thermal contraction happened along cable
jacket, thus the amount of residual stress in wire
cable varied in experimental tensile test. In
present predictive modelling, compressive
displacement is only applied at the middle section
of cable jacket to represent the geometric flaws
inherited from manufacturing defects.
Fig 5. Comparison between FE and experimental
tensile test results of electrical wire cable
Intermittent load (maximum load
capability of conductor) determined from FE
results in each level of compressive displacement
in terms of notches on cable jacket are shown in
Fig 6. By increasing amount of localised residual
stress, the maximum tensile load at the breaking
point of conductors decrease gradually but does
not involve significant drop. The maximum drop
in tensile load capability is merely 5%. It is
determined that the experimental result from wire
cable assembly falls between 0~5% cable jacket
shrinkage. The results also reveals that there is
high level of stress found in conductor. The
stresses in conductor due to compression of cable
jacket was high enough to a maximum level that
contributes to 57% of the failure stress
encountered by conductor in normal condition.
This points out there are possibilities that failure
of conductor can occur in other loading types due
to the decrease in material strength.
 P17C1-12, from which this project was funded
and funding from Motorola Solutions Malaysia at
the latter stages of the project. The ABAQUS
finite element code was made available under
academic license from Dassault Systémes K.K,
Tokyo. The authors would also like to thanks Dr.-
Ing Muhammad Razi bin Abdul Rahman for
supporting this project.

References
[1] RIZMAN. Intermittent Audio Analysis:
Experimental Approach [Bachelor's thesis]:
Fig. 6 Comparison of intermittent load between Universiti Sains Malaysia; 2014.
FE and experimental results in wire cable [2] KACHANOV LM. Fundamentals of the
assembly theory of plasticity: Dover Publications Inc.; 2004.
[3] ABAQUS. Version 6.13. Tokyo, Japan:
Dassault Systemes; 2013
5. Conclusions
This study leads to the following clear
conclusions.
1. Comparisons between FE results and
experimental results show an
encouragingly high degree of agreement in
the tensile behavior of individual
components, wires and the assembly of
wire cable.
2. Friction contacts between components
caused stress concentration in the interface
of conductor-kevlar, resulting in smaller
elongation for the failure of conductor.
3. The predicted residual stress caused minor
drop in the maximum tensile load
capability of conductor. The resultant
residual stress is high and can contributes
large proportion towards the failure stress
of conductor.

Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the funding support
from Collaborative Research in Engineering,
Science and Techology (CREST), through Grant

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