This paper presents the results of predictions of springback of cold-rolled anisotropic steel sheets using an approach based on a multilayer perceptron-based artificial neural network (ANN) coupled with a genetic algorithm (GA). A GA was used to optimise the number of input parameters of the multilayer perceptron that was trained using different algorithms. In the investigations, the mechanical parameters of sheet material determined in uniaxial tensile tests were used as input parameters to train the ANN. The springback coefficient, determined experimentally in the V-die air bending test, was used as an output variable. It was found that specimens cut along the rolling direction exhibit higher values of springback coefficient than specimens cut transverse to the rolling direction. An increase in the bending angle leads to an increase in the springback coefficient. A GA-based analysis has shown that Young's modulus and ultimate tensile stress are variables having no significant effect on the coefficient of springback. Multilayer perceptrons trained by back propagation, conjugate gradients and Lavenberg-Marquardt algorithms definitely favour punch bend depth under load as the most important variables affecting the springback coefficient.
Keywords: elastic strain; genetic algorithm; material properties; perceptron-based prediction; springback; steel sheet metal.