Date of Award

Fall 2013

Project Type

Thesis

Program or Major

Mechanical Engineering

Degree Name

Master of Science

First Advisor

Brad Lee Kinsey

Abstract

A key process parameter in magnetic pulse welding (MPW) is the workpiece velocity, and while some Finite Element Analysis (FEA) packages exist that are capable of modeling these processes, there is a lack of simplified analytical modeling efforts, which are attractive for their simplicity and cost. In this work, an electromagnetic actuator, named a Uniform Pressure Actuator (UPA), is analyzed, designed, constructed, and tested experimentally. The analytical model is shown to predict workpiece velocities accurately and produce an efficient forming and a robust design. Additionally, an alternative method to measure workpiece velocity is presented, implementing a fiber optic, reflectance dependent sensor. The sensor is shown to be an attractive low cost solution to measurement of high velocities in high voltage, magnetic environments, through experimental measurement in parallel with a Photon Doppler Velocimetry (PDV) system.

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