An experimental and theoretical investigation on residual stress of 7075-T651 aluminum alloy hole under electromagnetic cold expansion

The electromagnetic cold expansion process (ECE) was adopted in this work. The theoretical plastic radius, hole wall stress, radial stress, circumferential stress and release stress under different expansion rates (ER) were studied based on thick cylinder theory and ECE experiments. The released strain, residual stress (RS) and failure force were measured. The tensile fracture morphology was characterized. The results showed that the theoretical plastic radius (maximum 15.87 mm), internal stress (maximum 982.9 MPa), radial stress (maximum -820.9 MPa) and circumferential stress (maximum -271.4 MPa) increased with the increase of ER. The absolute radial and circumferential stress decreased and increased in negative and positive ranges respectively with distance increased. The release strain (maximum -3033 mu epsilon, 10-6 microstrain), radial RS (maximum 600.9 MPa) and circumferential RS (maximum 601.1 MPa) also increased with the increase of ER, and the minimum relative error of the plastic zone radius of the theoretical model was 3.78 % proving the reliability of the model. In addition, ECE increased the release stress (the maximum radial and circumferential release stresses were 1402.6 MPa and 747.5 MPa) and decreased the failure force (minimum 44.7kN) with increased ER. The initial crack position tended to transition from the inlet and outlet surfaces to the middle position, and the crack propagation angle and axial crack size gradually decreased with the decreased ER and stress level.