Numerical and experimental investigation of inward tube electromagnetic forming

In this work, experimental and numerical simulation of high-speed inward forming of tubes on a die in electromagnetic forming (EMF) system using a compression coil is presented. A 2D axi-symmetric electromagnetic model is used to calculate magnetic field and magnetic forces. Modified loose-coupled simulations of electromagnetic and structural aspects of EMF process are reported and emphasized in this paper. During the simulation, in each time step, the transient magnetic forces are obtained from the electromagnetic model and used as input load to the mechanical model. Based on the calculated deformation, in each step, the tube geometry in the electromagnetic model is updated to calculate the electromagnetic forces in proceeding step. Tube material, AA 6061-T6, is assumed to obey the Johnson-Cook (J-C) rate-dependent model. Displacement and thickness variations of workpieces along the tube length are presented and discussed experimentally and numerically. The results demonstrate that various workpiece zones could be thickened or thinned based on various process parameters. In addition, it is seen that the increase of discharge voltage decreases the thickness at die radius and reverses the thickening trend at tip of the bead.