A numerical method is presented to carry out sizing design sensitivity calculations outside established finite element analysis codes, using postprocessing data only. Geometric as well as material non-linearities are treated. To demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method, numerical results are presented for structural systems with linear elastic material, large displacements, large rotations and small strains. A distributed parameter approach to structural design sensitivity analysis is used to retain the continuum elasticity formulation throughout the derivation of design sensitivity results. Using this approach and an adjoint variable method, design sensitivity computations are carried out. For structural performance functionals stress and displacement are considered.
It is shown that computations can be performed with the same computational effort as for sizing design sensitivity analysis of linear structural systems. Accurate design sensitivity results are obtained for both linear and non-linear structural systems without the uncertainty of numerical accuracy and high cost associated with the selection of finite difference perturbations. Also, the method does not require differentiation of element stiffness and mass matrices in conventional finite element models.
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