Experimental Observations of 5A02 Aluminum Alloy in Electromagnetically Assisted Tube Hydroforming

To establish the efficiency of electromagnetically assisted tube hydroforming, a typical experimental test for hydroforming, i.e., hydrobulging, was carried out on a 5A02 tube blank by using a combined quasi-static axial feeding and pulsed electromagnetic hydrobulging method. Data on the formability of an aluminum alloy 5A02 tube employing this combined loading method is compared with data for traditional quasi-static tests. The results show that the formability of aluminum alloy undergoing a quasi-static–dynamic process is dramatically increased beyond that exhibited in quasi-static or fully dynamic tests. The ultimate expansion ratio of an aluminum alloy tube undergoing a pulsed electromagnetic hydrobulging process is greatly increased beyond that exhibited in quasi-static hydrobulging tests. Both the expansion ratio and the effective strain exhibited in electromagnetically assisted tube hydroforming tests are about four and two times of that in quasi-static and fully dynamic hydrobulging tests, respectively. The forming limits of aluminum samples with both low and high prestrain levels are almost similar in the electromagnetically assisted tube hydroforming process, which makes it possible to stretch the aluminum alloy to a higher quasi-static prestrain level without weakening its total quasi-static–dynamic formability.