First Results of Superconducting RF (SRF) Cavity Fabrication by Electrohydraulic Forming

In the framework of many accelerator projects relying on RF superconducting technology, shape conformity and processing time are key aspects for the optimization of copper and niobium cavities fabrication. An alternative technique to traditional shaping methods, such as deep-drawing and spinning is electrohydraulic forming (EHF). In EHF, half-cells are obtained through ultrahigh-speed deformation of blank sheets by using shockwaves induced in water by a pulsed electrical discharge. Compared to traditional shaping methods, EHF can bring valuable results in terms of final shape precision, reduced springback and high repeatability. In this paper, the first results of EHF on copper and niobium prototypes are discussed. The simulations performed to reproduce the embedded multi-physics phenomena and to optimize process parameters are also presented