Application of Triple-Coil System for Improving Deformation Depth of Tube in Electromagnetic Forming

To increase the deformation depth of a tube in an electromagnetic forming system, a triple-coil system was proposed and analyzed in this paper. The system consisted of three coils, in which one coil was placed in the middle plane, whereas the other two coils connected in series were placed at either end of the tube. The first type of coil was used for radial expansion, and the second type of coil was applied to introduce an additional axial electromagnetic force in the forming process. These two types of coils were energized by two independent pulsed capacitor banks for improving Lorentz force distribution of the tube. As a proof of concept, numerical simulations for investigating the Lorentz force distribution and deformation behavior of an aluminum tube (1060) were performed based on MATLAB 2015a and ANSYS 14.0. In addition, results show that the deformation depth can be improved by the use of the proposed system due to an obvious inhibition effect on wall thickness reduction.