Laser forming, a metal forming process, uses laser as an energy source to establish thermal gradients in a material which then induces thermal stresses in the material, resulting in forming of the component. This does not require any external force and avoids the use of costly, complex fixtures and dies. One of the challenges in laser forming is to predict the targeted bending angle accurately. Analytical formulae that are available for predicting these bending angles are derived from a fair number of assumptions. Moreover, these formulae may not be directly applied to multi-pass laser forming. Finite element (FE) analysis can be performed to predict bending angles during multi-pass laser forming accurately. The present work describes the FE modeling of a coupled temperature-displacement moving heat source model that can be used for simulating the laser forming process. Further, during these simulations, a correct value of absorptivity coefficient of material to a given laser heat source is required for accurate prediction of results. Simulations are performed to inverse estimate the absorptivity coefficient value through correlation with experiment. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.