Magnetic Field Enhancement Using Field Shaper for

Electromagnetic Welding System

Dond S.K, M R Kulkarni, Satendra Kumar, P C Saroj and Archana Sharma
Accelerator and Pulse Power Division,
Romi Bhabha National Institute,
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, Mumbai 400 085, India

Abstract- Field shaper is an important tool in Electromagnetic Current passing through coil is measured by rogowski coil and
welding system. With the help of the experimental results and a magnetic flux density is measured using surge coil which has
numerical solution, here it is shown that field shaper enhances as sensitivity of 7.45Teslaivolt. Without field shaper flux density
well as gives more uniform magnetic field at specified location.
Effect of used field shaper material and its shape for field
enhancement is also shown by simulation.

Keywords-Field shaper, Magnetic pressure, Numerical

simulation

I. INTRODUCTION

Electromagnetic welding and electromagnetic forming

process are gaining significant applications in automobile
industries and other commercial metal working applications
due to capability of joining dissimilar materials, surface
cleanness, rapidity, precision and other advantages. Lorentz
force generated during operation is used for forming and
welding [ 1]. Field shaper plays an important role in Fig. 1. Set up image of Electromagnetic coil andfield shaper
concentrating magnetic pressure to desire point [2] [3]. Beside
this, it reduces force acting on coil thereby prolong the coil
life as well as it makes uniform force on surface of job piece.
In this paper, application of field shaper in concentrating
magnetic flux density is studied. Flux density is measured
with and without field shaper experimentally for same input
energy. A 2D numerical simulation also carried out using
COMSOL software that shows effect of field shaper on
concentrating field as well as making uniformity in magnetic
flux density over required area. Magnetic pressure generated
by the coil is given by following equation where B is the
magnetic flux density and Uo is permeability of free space.

82
mag =-
( 1)
2uo

Fig. 2. Current and magnetic flux density waveform

II. EXPERIMENTAL TESTING
is measured at centre of coil inner surface and with field
Testing is carried out using 40kJ, 20 kV electromagnetic shaper it is measured at field shaper inner surface keeping
manufacturing system. Capacitor bank of rating 224uF is same input energy in both the cases. Figure 2 shows current
charged at 17 kV (32 kJ) energy is discharged into and magnetic field waveform obtained on oscilloscope during
electromagnetic coil through trigatron switch. A 6 disk, testing without field shapero
aluminum 6082 made Electromagnetic coil is used. Field
shaper is made up of high strength beryllium copper (Be-cu) TTl. NUMERICAL SIMULATION

and placed inside surface of coil to concentrate magnetic field.

Figure 1 shows the arrangement.
A. Field shaper effect
A 2D axisymmetric numerical simulation is carried out
using COMSOL .Flux density in radial direction is observed at
coil surface without field shaper and then at field shaper inner

978-1-4673-9536-6/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

surface. Input current to coil kept same as obtained in Field shaper has to be more conductive for higher field
experiment. It is an under damped wave of peak value of 124 enhancement. Besides this, it should be mechanically stronger
kA with 5.49 KHz frequency. Flux density is measured at time to handle repulsive forces during welding operation.
of peak current. Considering this two aspects, beryllium copper is used here as
a field shaper material.

Table 11: EFFECT OF FIELD SHAPER CONDUCTIVITY ON FIELD ENHANCEMENT

Field
Input Conductivity Yield strength Flux
shaper
energy (MS/m) (MPa) density
material
32 kJ Copper 58 275 30.8 Tesla
32 kJ Aluminum 36 18 29.8 Tesla
32 kJ Be-cu 18 800 28.3 Tesla

32 kJ Maraging Steel 1.33 1000 17.7 Tesla

Fig. 3. Coil andfield shaper arrangement

Shape of field shaper also affects field magnitude of

Un. Graph: Magnetic flu)( density. z component (T)
..-
7.2 ,,-;,------:...----'--- --'-------
----,,--, enhancement. By simulation it is found that angle of incidence
of field shaper on job piece when 90, gives flux density of
E 6 .
28.3 Tesla compare to 26 Tesla given by conical shape field
I
6.6

E
6.4
shaper where angle is 5 3.
6.2

f 5 .

J! 5.6
."
l'
5.4

I 5.2

4 .

10 20 30 40 50 60 70
z-coordinate (mm)
=
Fig. 4. Magnetic flux density at coil surface withoutfield shaper

Line Graph: Magnetic flux density, z component (T) Fig. 6 . Shape offield shaper

IV. CONCLUSION

Experiment and numerical simulation is carried out to

observe the field shaper effect. As revealed by the results, flux
x density is enhanced about 5.6 times due to use of field shaper.

20
=
Flux density and thereby magnetic pressure is more uniform
19
18 by the use of field shaper. Field shaper material and its shape
30 32 34 36 38 40 are also important factors for magnetic field enhancement.
z-coordinate (rnrn)

Fig. 5. Magnetic flux density at inside surface offield shaper ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Table T: COMPARISON OF EXPERIMENTAL AND SIMULATION RESULTS We would like to express our sincere thanks to Shri. R.K.
Rajawat (Head APPD Division, BARC) for their constant
Input Flux Density Experimental Simulation
energy Measurement encouragement and support.
64.7kJ Without Field 4.9 1 Tesla 5.5 Tesla
shaper
64.7 kV Withfield shaper 27. 7 1 Tesla 28.3 Tesla REFERENCES

[ 1] Sachin D. Kore, P. P. Date, S. V. Kulkami, Satendra Kumar, Dolly

From figure 4 and 5 it can be seen that the flux density is Rani, M.R.Kulkami, S. V. Desai, R. K. Rajawat, K. V. Nagesh, D. P.
increased by use of field shaper and its nature is more Chakravarty "Application of electromagnetic impact technique for
welding copper-to-stainless steel sheets" The Intemational Journal of
uniform. This is also one of factor which determines the
Advanced Manufacturing Technology, June 20 1 1, Volume 54, Issue 9-
quality of weld. Simulation results show good agreement with
12, pp 949-955.
experimental measurements. Field shaper increases the flux [2] Haiping Yu , Chunfeng Li, Zhiheng Zhao, Zhong Li, "Effect of field
density about 5.6 times that leads to increment of magnetic shaper on magnetic pressure in electromagnetic forming," Journal of
Materials Processing Technology 168 (2005) 245-249 .
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[3] Pedram Gharghabi, Peyman Dordizadeh B and Kaveh Niayesh
"Impact of Metal Thickness and Field Shaper on the Time-varying
B. Effect offield shaper conductivity and its shape Processes during Impulse Electromagnetic Forming in Tubular
Geometries" Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 59, No.
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