The hot curvature-forming of large aluminum thick plate using a grid-typed hybrid die is a process for the production of a spherical LNG tank. Many variables such as the initial die surface quality, grid size, grid thickness, size of blank plate and cooling line design, control the success of the process. In addition, the plate used in this process is generally larger than $10{ imes}10m$ in size. Thus, it is very difficult to predict the surface characteristics of the plate during forming and to measure the different parameters due to the high cost of the experiments. In order to optimize the process design for the grid-type die, the development of an analytical method to predict the surface characteristics of the final product in hot curvature-forming is needed. This paper described the development of the method and procedures for FE simulations of the hot curvature-forming process, including hot forming, air flow, cooling, and thermal deformation analyses. An experiment for a small scale model of the process was conducted to check the validity of the numerical method. The results showed that the curvature of the plate in the analysis agrees well with that of the experiment within 0.037 and 0.016% tolerance margins for its side and corner, respectively.