Non-coupled Finite Element Modelling of Electromagnetic Radial Compaction of Pure Aluminium Powder

In this article, Finite element modelling is described to simulate aluminium powder’s electromagnetic radial powder compaction process. Electromagnetic powder compaction technique is considered a high strain and high-speed powder forming technique in which solenoid coil with uniformly tapered step field shaper is used as forming tool for powder compaction process. In this process, the packing tube that holds the powder acts as a driving medium for the momentum transfer. During experiments, aluminium powder is kept in an electrically conductive driver tube material (in this study, Al 6063 tube). This process utilizes the Lorentz forces for compacting powder to give the required strength for the powder metallurgy component. This paper mainly develops a non-coupled finite element model to simulate the aluminium powder’s electromagnetic powder compaction process. A versatile software Ansys Maxwell was used to analyze the intensities of the distribution of the electromagnetic fields during the electromagnetic forming process. The current curve obtained in the experiment is used as input loading conditions for analyzing electromagnetic fields. After that, for structural analysis of the powder compaction process, Ls-Dyna explicit software is used. The Geologic cap model was established in Ls-Dyna Multiphysics software for modelling powder deformation behaviour. The Johnson-Cook strength model was used to describe the packing tube’s deformation. The FEM analysis helped predict the results of the final shape and size of electromagnetic powder compaction. The developed simulation model has been validated with a series of experiments resulting from the compaction of aluminium powder.