Abstract: An original plastic equivalent model was proposed to solve the problem of excessive FEM simulation time when designing the press bend forming path and optimizing the process parameters of press bend forming of the integrally stiffened aircraft panels. Based on the in-depth analysis of the mechanics of the bending and springback of the detailed model and the equivalent model of the integral panels, the plastic equivalent model of the virtual material with special initial yield stress and hardening coefficients was constructed. FEM results indicate that the objective of getting the similar contour with the same press bend forming path is achieved with the error less than 6%, and the efficiency of FEM simulation is improved by more than 80%. The plastic equivalent model is valuable and essential for the further research on the press bend forming process of large scale complicated integral panels.

Key words: equivalent model; integrally stiffened panel; press bend forming; plastic equivalent plate; virtual material parameters