Forming limit and loading path of Mg-alloy tube bulging

The paper researched formability ability of AZ31 Mg-alloy tube by hot pneumatic bulging. FEM simulations were carried out to reveal the effect of internal pressure changing on bulging process and forming limit. Several loading paths with different pressure changing were used in the simulations. From the research, the original expansion ratio of diameter using a bilinear loading path, namely the internal pressure was increased linearly, is only 22%, and bursting occurs quickly. With a step-like loading path, namely the internal pressure is increased step by step, among the steps, the pressure is kept constant, and the strain rate of bulging can be kept into a small range. Thus the deformation around the hoop direction is more even than the linear loading path, and than bursting can be postponed. During bulging, the inner pressure should be lowered with the increase of diameter to keep the strain rate in a small range around a constant value. Through optimization of loading path, the forming limit can be enhanced obviously so that the expansion ratio of diameter can be increased to 25.1%.