Design and optimization of an integrated multi-layer coil for decreasing the discharge energy in electromagnetic welding using numerical and experimental methods

An innovative integrated I-shape multi-layer coil was designed for the electromagnetic welding (EMW) process using the finite element method (FEM) combined with response surface methodology (RSM) to minimize the required discharge energy of welding. The parameters of number of layers (n), thickness of layers (t), and distance between layers (d) have been varied to optimize the values of current peak (I), frequency (f), magnetic flux density (B), Lorentz force (F), and impact velocity (V), simultaneously. Investigation of parameters for the design of the coil was accomplished in Maxwell®16 and LS-Dyna®4 softwares. The output results of these softwares were optimized by response surface methodology (RSM) and desirability function (DF) in Minitab®17 software. It was observed that the discharge energy for welding the aluminum (Al) to stainless steel (SS) was decreased from 6.75 to 3 kJ. The optimized coil was verified experimentally to allow good-quality welding.