The damping performance of metal rubber is highly correlated with the tribological properties of the internal metal wires. In this paper, the friction and wear characteristics of 316L stainless-steel wire are investigated under different temperatures, loads, crossing angles, and working strokes. Results show that the friction coefficient increases from 0.415 to 0.635 and the wear depth increases from 34 μm to 51 μm, with the temperature rising from 20 °C to 400 °C. High temperature will soften metal materials and promote the oxidation of metal. Softened materials can be easily sheared and removed under friction action, resulting in high wear depth. However, when a continuous oxide film with high hardness is formed under higher temperature, the oxide film can work as a wear-resisting layer to prevent further wear of the wire to a certain degree. At the same temperature, the loads, crossing angles, and working strokes change the wear resistance by affecting the surface stress, debris removal efficiency, etc., and high temperature will aggravate this change. The results pave the way for the design and selection of materials for high-temperature metal rubber components.

The fretting wear characteristics of two different energy density 316L stainless steels formed by selective laser melting (SLM) under different friction conditions are studied. The image method was used to study the porosity of two samples with different energy densities (46.88 J/mm³, 98.96 J/mm³) formed by SLM. The dynamic wear test, respectively, evaluates its wear morphology and wear depth under three conditions: dry friction, distilled water, and an 3.5% NaCl solution. The porosity of the samples with SLM forming an energy density of 46.88 J/${\mathrm{mm}}^3$ and 98.96 J/${\mathrm{mm}}^3$ are 7.66% and 1.00%, respectively. Under the three conditions, the friction coefficient and wear depth of the samples with high energy density are smaller than those of the samples with low energy density; the friction of the samples with two energy densities in aqueous solution is faster than dry friction in air and tends to be stable. The friction coefficient in 3.5% NaCl solution is the smallest; when the energy density is constant, the wear depth of the fretting wear is the largest under dry friction and the smallest in distilled water. Under dry-friction conditions, the wear mechanisms of fretting wear are mainly oxidative wear and adhesive wear. In the fretting wear in the distilled water and the 3.5% NaCl solution, both wear mechanisms are abrasive wear and fatigue wear.

Fuzz buttons are formed by interweaving and compacting fine metallic wires, resulting in a highly porous architecture with complex internal contact interactions. Their compressive behavior is governed by the evolution of wire–wire contacts, frictional sliding, local bending, and plastic deformation, which cannot be adequately captured by conventional homogenized models. To address this limitation, a process-informed finite element modeling approach based on virtual fabrication is proposed. First, the spatial trajectories of 24 beryllium copper wires are generated using a parametric three-dimensional weaving algorithm and smoothed by cubic spline interpolation to obtain continuous wire centerlines. The resulting preform is then virtually compacted to reconstruct the densified wire network and its contact topology. The model employs a globally controlled solid-element mesh, a penalty-based general contact algorithm, a Coulomb friction model, and an explicit quasi-static solution scheme. The size-dependent plastic response of the fine wires is further incorporated through a Nix–Gao-based correction to the constitutive relation. The model is validated against quasi-static compression experiments at compressive strains of 15%, 20%, and 25%. The relative errors in the predicted peak forces are 2.12%, 5.65%, and 6.81%, respectively, while the corresponding coefficients of determination for the force–displacement curves are 0.984, 0.970, and 0.973. The model successfully reproduces the nonlinear loading–unloading response and hysteretic energy dissipation over the investigated strain range. The proposed approach provides a physically grounded numerical framework for predicting the compressive behavior of fuzz buttons and investigating the mesoscopic mechanics of complex interwoven wire networks.

As a novel solderless vertical interconnection structure, the fuzz button exhibits broad application prospects in high-density electronic packaging and high-reliability interconnection systems owing to its low profile, separable interconnection capability, and excellent environmental adaptability. However, due to its complex internal geometric configuration and contact nonlinearity, conventional equivalent modeling approaches are insufficient to accurately characterize its actual mesoscopic structure and mechanical behavior. To address this issue, a finite element simulation method for fuzz buttons based on virtual fabrication was proposed. A trajectory generation method describing the “movement–direction change–fixation–reset” process of metallic wires was first established based on a three-dimensional braiding technique, and cubic spline interpolation was employed to smooth and fit the trajectories, thereby constructing a three-dimensional preform model of the fuzz button. Subsequently, the compression molding process was implemented in Abaqus to obtain a fuzz button model possessing realistic geometric morphology and mesoscopic contact topology characteristics. Considering the pronounced contact nonlinearity and large deformation behavior, the penalty function method was adopted to handle the complex contact interactions among metallic wires, while an explicit dynamic solver with displacement-controlled loading was employed for numerical computation. The mesh was discretized using C3D8R solid elements, and local mesh refinement was introduced in the contact regions to balance computational accuracy and efficiency. Key mechanical response data, including reaction force–displacement curves and energy dissipation characteristics, were extracted and validated experimentally. The results demonstrate that the proposed finite element simulation method can effectively reproduce the compressive behavior and nonlinear hysteretic response of fuzz buttons, with good agreement achieved between simulation and experimental results. The proposed approach provides an effective tool and theoretical basis for mesoscopic structural modeling, mechanical performance analysis, and structural optimization design of fuzz button contacts.