Two model-based engineering tools, Automated Thermal Plate Forming (ATPF) software and Wise Heating (WH) software were used to predict the thermal forming process parameters for a selected complex hull plate shape. The predicted process parameters and heating plan were evaluated by conducting finite-element (FE) simulations of thermal forming and comparing the final predicted geometry with the target hull shape (Fig. 1). The ATPF demonstrated the capability to generate heating plans with an induction heating source and the WH demonstrated its capability to predict a heating plan with an oxy-fuel torch heating source.

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