EXPERIMENT SETUP FOR VALIDATION
Experiments were conducted by using a selfdesigned
thermal hydroforming system. Temperature-
resistant oil was adopted in the system as the
pressurizing medium with the highest resistanttemperature up to 573 K. The built-in pressure
intensifier was able to generate pressure up to
200 MPa. The die temperature was elevated by the
heaters embedded in the die. Experimental procedures
were conducted as follows. First, the tubular
blank was placed in the die cavity. Then the die was
closed and sealed by the plungers at both ends with
the clamping force up to 160 tons (provided by the
existing hydraulic power press).The temperatureresistant
oil was injected into the tube placed in the
cavity. The die was monitored and controlled at
different selected elevated temperatures: 493 K,
523 K, and 553 K. The Mg-based alloy (AZ31B) tube
was subsequently hydroformed under an internal
pressure of 12 MPa. Similar conditions were created
for all experiments. Meanwhile, two plungers at
both ends were activated and pushed forward with
approximate of 5 mm to avoid the leakage of the
temperature resistant oil during THF. The tooling
setup and operation for the hydroforming experiments
are shown in Fig. 9.