Configuration Design Sensitivity Analysis for Design Optimization

A unified configuration design sensitivity analysis (DSA) is developed for built-up structures that include truss, beam, plane elastic solid, and plate design components. Taking the total variation of the energy equation and using an adjoint variable or direct differentiation method, configuration design sensitivity results for static and eigenvalue response are formulated in terms of the design velocity fields. Displacement, stress, and eigenvalue performance measures are considered. A computational procedure for configuration design optimization is presented, using an established finite element analysis (FEA) code, the continuum DSA method, and an optimization code. A domain displacement method is presented to compute both the domain velocity and the angular velocity. A configuration design optimization of a crane structure is demonstrated using the FEA code ANSYS, continuum DSA, and Pshenichny’s linearization method.