Magnesium Alloy Forming using Underwater Shock Wave by Wire Electric Discharge

Abstract

The magnesium alloy has advantage in strength per mass and it has been widely used on airplane, aerospace, computer, cellphone and automobile industries. However, forming of magnesium alloy plate at the room temperature is very difficult, because it has a dense hexagonal and the basal sliding is easy to happen conspicuously in comparison with other sliding system. We considered that those weak characteristics are reduced by high strain rate forming. Therefore, magnesium alloy forming using shock wave by metal wire electric discharge has been carried out. Thin aluminum alloy was used as the metal wire. Electricity is supplied to this wire from power supply with Marx circuit. The aluminum wire set underwater and it has instantly molten vaporization, then, the underwater shock wave was generated. The shock loading by the underwater shock wave acts to the magnesium alloy plate. The magnesium alloy plate was AZ31(Al 3%, Zn 1%). In this study, the target is bulge forming of the magnesium alloy plate. Then, some numerical simulations were carried out. These results will be discussed in this paper.