Numerical simulation of magnetic flux and force in electromagnetic forming with attractive force

The electromagnetic forming process with electromagnetic attractive force can cover the disadvantage of that with electromagnetic repulsive force and expand its applications. In this paper, the principle of electromagnetic attractive force forming is proposed and the effect of the discharge current waveform on the direction of electromagnetic force acting on the workpiece is discussed. The FEA software ANSYS is used to simulate the distributions of magnetic flux and magnetic force with flat coil. The numerical simulation results indicate that the improved discharge current which ascends slowly, descends quickly, and descends slowly in turn is more suitable for the process of electromagnetic attractive force forming. A simple test basing on the principle of electromagnetic attractive force is presented and the experiment shows that the attractive force can be realized successfully. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.