Effects of temperature and driver sheet for magnesium alloy sheet in magnetic pulse forming

Thermal effect from warm temperature is always used to improve the formability of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheet. However, it is seldom employed to deform AZ31 sheet in magnetic pulse forming process, due to increasing resistivity and decreasing effect of high strain rate. In this study, Al driver sheets without heating were used to strength effect of high strain rate and drive AZ31 sheet with warm temperature to deform. Method of numerical simulation was used to analyze magnetic pulse forming of AZ31 sheet with driver sheet and temperature. Magnetic flux density and magnetic force with and without Al driver sheet (thickness of 1, 1.5, and 2 mm) and different temperature (25, 100, 150, 200, and 250°C) were investigated. Deformation processes and velocity with Al driver sheet and different temperature were analyzed. The results indicate that it is better for formability of AZ31 sheet to adopt 1-mm Al driver sheet at higher discharge energy and warm temperature.