2025 International Conference on Sensing, Measurement & Data Analytics in the era of Artificial Intelligence (ICSMD 2025)

Conductive slip rings, employing brush-collector ring current-carrying friction pairs, enable continuous electrical transmission between stationary and rotating interfaces, serving as critical components in spacecraft rotary drive systems. However, mechanical wear and arc erosion often lead to severe degradation of slip rings. The inadequate understanding of wear mechanisms in spacecraft current-carrying friction pairs poses challenges for lifespan prediction. This study develops a mechanistic wear model that incorporates interfacial thermal effects and material evolution beyond classical adhesive wear theory, with refined characterization of arc erosion behavior considering contact stability. An experimental bench was established to collect wear data under various operational conditions while monitoring contact voltage and temperature. Experimental results demonstrate that the calibrated model accurately predicts brush wear with minimal experimental data, providing critical support for lifespan assessment and condition monitoring of spacecraft conductive slip rings.

Current-carrying friction pair, Conductive slip ring, Wear model, Life assessment