Temperature is more important than time for stress relaxation. Higher temperature means more rapid relaxation. The temperature in an actual connector depends on the surrounding temperature and heat generated in the connector. The connector material electrical and thermal conductivity decides the maximum temperature under different conditions. Alloys with higher conductivity will therefore reach a lower maximum temperature that is advantageous from a stress relaxation point of view.
Most connectors operate at temperatures less than one half the absolute melting temperature.
Therefore, non-diffusion controlled mechanisms, including dislocation gliding, flow of grain boundaries, diffusion of vacancies and twinning govern the stress relaxation process. Figure 14 uses cantilever beam maximum surface stress to demonstrate stress relaxation conditions. Figure 16 indicates the simple bend loads of the sample. Measurement of the permanent set of the beam occurs at various times after continuous exposure to elevated temperatures. Stressing alloys to a constant percentage of their individual yield strengths is preferable to a common numerical stress value for all alloys.