Prediction of stiffener buckling in press bend forming of integral panels

In order to predict the buckling of stiffeners in the press bend forming of the integral panel, a method for solving the critical buckling load of the stiffeners in press bend forming process was proposed based on energy method, elastic-plastic mechanics and numerical analysis. Bend to buckle experiments were carried out on the designed press bend dies. It is found that the predicted results based on the proposed method agree well with the experimental results. With the proposed method, the buckling of the stiffeners in press bend forming of the aluminum alloy integral panels with high-stiffener can be predicted reasonably.