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In this paper a new approach for forming sheet metals by explosion of gas mixtures is presented. As the sheet metal shapes by the impact and pressure resulted from the explosion, it undergoes through a plastic deformation phase. Testing apparatus which is built for the first time in Iran, consists of a thick-walled cylinder (expolsion chamber), various dies for shaping, and measuring instruments. Unlike techniques used in conventional systems, in this method, the wave impact acts as the male part of the die to form and produce different engineering components. Experimental results presented show the effect of various parameters such as thickness, boundary conditions, and the material type of the work-piece, also the percentage of gas mixture on the distribution of thickness/circumferential strain in the work-piece. Furthermore, an analytical model based on the plastic work calculations for the sheet metal deformation is presented.

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Electrohydraulic forming (EHF) is a high velocity sheet metal forming process in which two or more electrodes are positioned in a water filled chamber and a high-voltage discharge between the electrodes generates a high-pressure to form the sheet. In this study extensive experimental tests were carried out to investigate the effect of different parameters (such as discharge energy, stand off distance and electrodes gap) on the maximum drawing depth and implicit on shock wave maximal pressure in electrohydraulic free forming. EHF is a complex phenomenon and experimental work alone is not sufficient to properly understand this process. To explain different aspects of the problem, Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) formulations coupled with fluid–structure interaction (FSI) algorithms that are available in the advanced finite element code LS-DYNA were used to the numerical simulation. In order to model the effect of the electrical discharge, two different approaches were implemented; explosive equivalent mass and energy leak. In the first approach, According to the similarity between explosion and electrical discharge in the water, electrical discharge energy was converted to equivalent TNT mass. In the second approach electrodes gap is replaced by a plasma channel and electrical discharge energy was leaked to it in a short amount of time which makes the channel expand and generate shock waves propagating toward the workpiece .Finally, it was found a good correlation between the experimental and simulation results.