Structural Design Optimization as Technology Source for Design Sensitivity Analysis Developments in the Electromagnetic Domain

The growing interest in optimization in recent years reflects a realization of the effectiveness of numerical techniques for improving electromagnetic performance as well as confidence in the presently available numerical field calculation methods. The present paper surveys recent work in electromagnetic optimization using general numerical methods for field computation and focuses on shape optimization based on the finite element method. In the field of structural design optimization methods have emerged as early as the beginning of the seventies and it can be considered a mature engineering discipline today. A selection of numerous textbooks [1-5] and journal articles [6-13] is therefore used as a useful reference technology in the development of methodologies for electromagnetic design optimization.