Axisymmetric thermoelastic shape sensitivity analysis and its application to turbine disc design

A general method for shape design sensiti vityi analysis (SDSA) as applied to an axisymmetric thermoelasticity problem is presented using the material derivative concept and the adjoint variable method. The sensitivity of a general functional composed of thermal and mechanical quantities is considered. The method for deriving the sensitivity formula is based on standard direct thermal and elastic boundary integral equation formulation. It is then applied to obtain explicit formulas for a representative displacement and stress constraint imposed on a sector of the boundary. Results of numerical implementation are presented for weight minimization of a turbine disc under thermomechanical loading. The sensitivities of the displacement and stress constraint calculated by the formulas are compared with those by finite differences. Optimum shape obtained under the thermomechanical loading is discussed with that under the mechanical loading only, clearly showing the practical importance of the SDSA of thermoelastic systems.     

Applications of BEM in sensitivity analysis and optimization

A general approach to shape design sensitivity analysis and optimal design for static and vibration problems using boundary elements is presented. The adjoint variable method is applied to obtain first-order sensitivities for the effect of boundary shape variations. The boundary element procedure for numerical calculations of sensitivities are used. Typical objective and constraints functionals are described for shape optimal design. Several numerical examples of applications of boundary elements in shape optimal design are presented.It is a part of the paper New trends and applications of BEM in sensitivity analysis and optimization—a survey, presented during International IABEM-92 Symposium on Boundary Element Methods at University of Colorado, Boulder, 3–6 August 1992     

Boundary elements in shape design sensitivity analysis and optimal design of vibrating structures

A general approach to shape design sensitivity analysis and optimal design for dynamic transient and free vibrations problems using boundary elements is presented. The material derivatives and the adjoint system method are applied to obtain first-order sensitivities for the effect of boundary shape variations. A numerical example of shape sensitivity analysis and optimal design for free vibrations of an elastic body is presented.     

Boundary element based formulations for crack shape sensitivity analysis

The present paper addresses several BIE-based or BIE-oriented formulations for sensitivity analysis of integral functionals with respect to the geometrical shape of a crack. Functionals defined in terms of integrals over the external boundary of a cracked body and involving the solution of a frequency-domain boundary-value elastodynamic problem are considered, but the ideas presented in this paper are applicable, with the appropriate modifications, to other kinds of linear field equations as well. Both direct differentiation and adjoint problem techniques are addressed, with recourse to either collocation or symmetric Galerkin BIE formulations. After a review of some basic concepts about shape sensitivity and material differentiation, the derivative integral equations for the elastodynamic crack problem are discussed in connection with both collocation and symmetric Galerkin BIE formulations. Building upon these results, the direct differentiation and the adjoint solution approaches are then developed. In particular, the adjoint solution approach is presented in three different forms compatible with boundary element method (BEM) analysis of crack problems, based on the discretized collocation BEM equations, the symmetric Galerkin BEM equations and the direct and adjoint stress intensity factors, respectively. The paper closes with a few comments.     

Shape design sensitivity analysis and optimization of two-dimensional periodic thermal problems using BEM

 A general procedure to perform shape design sensitivity analysis for two-dimensional periodic thermal diffusion problems is developed using boundary integral equation formulation. The material derivative concept to describe shape variation is used. The temperature is decomposed into a steady state component and a perturbation component. The adjoint variable method is used by utilizing integral identities for each component. The primal and adjoint systems are solved by boundary element method. The sensitivity results compared with those by finite difference show good accuracy. The shape optimal design problem of a plunger model for the panel of a television bulb, which operates periodically, is solved as an example. Different objectives and amounts of heat flux allowed are studied. Corresponding optimum shapes of the cooling boundary of the plunger are obtained and discussed. Received 15 August 2001 / Accepted 28 February 2002     

Multi-objective aerodynamic shape optimization for unsteady viscous flows

This paper presents an adjoint method for the multi-objective aerodynamic shape optimization of unsteady viscous flows. The goal is to introduce a Mach number variation into the Non-Linear Frequency Domain (NLFD) method and implement a novel approach to present a time-varying cost function through a multi-objective adjoint boundary condition. The paper presents the complete formulation of the time dependent optimal design problem. The approach is firstly demonstrated for the redesign of a helicopter rotor blade in two-dimensional flow and in three-dimensional viscous flow, the technique is employed to validate and redesign the NASA Rectangular Supercritical Wing (RSW).     

Shape design sensitivity analysis via material derivative-adjoint variable technique for 3-D and 2-D curved boundary elements

A general approach to shape design sensitivity analysis of three- and two-dimensional elastic solid objects is developed using the material derivative-adjoint variable technique and boundary element method. The formulation of the problem is general and first-order sensitivities in the form of boundary integrals for the effect of boundary shape variations are derived for an arbitrary performance functional. Second-order quadrilateral surface elements (for 3-D problems) and quadratic boundary elements (for 2-D problems) are employed in the solution of primary and adjoint systems and discretization of the boundary integral expressions for sensitivities. The accuracy of sensitivity information is studied for selected global performance functionals and also for boundary state fields at discrete points. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of this approach.     

3-D shape optimal design and automatic finite element regridding

A unified method for continuum shape design sensitivity analysis and optimal design of mechanical components is developed. A domain method of shape design sensitivity analysis that uses the material derivative concept of continuum mechanics is employed. For numerical implementation of shape optimal design, parameterization of the boundary shape of mechanical components is defined and illustrated using a Bezier surface. In shape design problems, nodal points of the finite element model move as the shape changes. A method of automatic regridding to account for shape change has been developed using a design velocity field in the physical domain that obeys the governing equilibrium equations of the elastic solid. For numerical implementation of the continuum shape design sensitivity analysis and automatic regridding, an established finite element analysis code is used. To demonstrate the feasibility of the method developed, shape design optimization of a main engine bearing cap is carried out as an example.     

A boundary point interpolation method for stress analysis of solids

 A boundary point interpolation method (BPIM) is proposed for solving boundary value problems of solid mechanics. In the BPIM, the boundary of a problem domain is represented by properly scattered nodes. The boundary integral equation (BIE) for 2-D elastostatics has been discretized using point interpolants based only on a group of arbitrarily distributed boundary points. In the present BPIM formulation, the shape functions constructed using polynomial basis function in a curvilinear coordinate possess Dirac delta function property. The boundary conditions can be implemented with ease as in the conventional boundary element method (BEM). The BPIM for 2-D elastostatics has been coded in FORTRAN, and used to obtain numerical results for stress analysis of two-dimensional solids. Received 10 January 2000     

A numerical study on the elements of shape optimum design

This paper discusses the main elements of shape optimization. The material derivative of a stress function using the continuum approach is derived by introducing an adjoint problem, which is then transformed into shape design sensitivity by replacing the velocity field with the change of the design variables. The difficulty related with the appearance of the concentrated adjoint loads is discussed, with two proposals for the modelling of the adjoint problem. A numerical example is used to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed formulation for different adjoint loads.

Two shape optimization examples are used to investigate the numerical characteristics of the optimization process. Two kinds of design boundary modelling are employed, namely the linear and cubic spline boundary representation. The difference of the final design shapes under different design variables and mesh distributions are also studied.     

Control of the freezing interface motion in two-dimensional solidification processes using the adjoint method

The aim of this work is to calculate the optimum history of boundary cooling conditions that, in two-dimensional conduction driven solidification processes, results in a desired history of the freezing interface location/motion. The freezing front velocity and heat flux on the solid side of the front, define the obtained solidification microstructure that can be selected such that desired macroscopic mechanical properties and soundness of the final cast product are achieved. The so-called two-dimensional inverse Stefan design problem is formulated as an infinite-dimensional minimization problem. The adjoint method is developed in conjunction with the conjugate gradient method for the solution of this minimization problem. The sensitivity and adjoint equations are derived in a moving domain. The gradient of the cost functional is obtained by solving the adjoint equations backward in time. The sensitivity equations are solved forward in time to compute the optimal step size for the gradient method. Two-dimensional numerical examples are analysed to demonstrate the performance of the present method.     

Optimization of a variable mouth acoustic horn

By using boundary shape optimization on the end part of a semi‐infinite waveguide for acoustic waves, we design transmission‐efficient interfacial devices without imposing an upper bound on the mouth diameter. The boundary element method solves the Helmholtz equation modeling the exterior wave propagation problem. A gradient‐based optimization algorithm solves the resulting least‐squares problem and the adjoint method provides the necessary gradients. The results demonstrate that there appears to be a natural limit on the optimal mouth diameter. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inverse scattering analysis in acoustics via the BEM and the topological-shape sensitivity method

Inverse scattering acoustics find practical applications in the detection and imaging of objects embedded in continuous media as well as in finding the optimum geometric configuration of an object to produce a given radiation performance. This work introduces a boundary element method (BEM) approach for the solution of acoustic identification and optimization problems via a topological-shape sensitivity method. The devised optimization tool takes advantage of the inherent characteristics of BEM to effectively solve the forward and adjoint acoustic problems arising in the topological derivative formulation and to deal with infinite domains. The objectives for the identification and optimization problems are to achieve a prescribed sound pressure at a given region of the problem domain. The locus giving extreme values for the topological derivative indicates the optimum positions for the placement of sound-hard scatterers in order to minimize the cost function. The proposed implementation has the ability to deal with initially empty design spaces as well as with design spaces containing pre-existent scatterers. The capabilities of the method are demonstrated by solving a number of identification and optimization problems.     

Sounding of finite solid bodies by way of topological derivative

This paper is concerned with an application of the concept of topological derivative to elastic‐wave imaging of finite solid bodies containing cavities. Building on the approach originally proposed in the (elastostatic) theory of shape optimization, the topological derivative, which quantifies the sensitivity of a featured cost functional due to the creation of an infinitesimal hole in the cavity‐free (reference) body, is used as a void indicator through an assembly of sampling points where it attains negative values. The computation of topological derivative is shown to involve an elastodynamic solution to a set of supplementary boundary‐value problems for the reference body, which are here formulated as boundary integral equations. For a comprehensive treatment of the subject, formulas for topological sensitivity are obtained using three alternative methodologies, namely (i) direct differentiation approach, (ii) adjoint field method, and (iii) limiting form of the shape sensitivity analysis. The competing techniques are further shown to lead to distinct computational procedures. Methodologies (i) and (ii) are implemented within a BEM‐based platform and validated against an analytical solution. A set of numerical results is included to illustrate the utility of topological derivative for 3D elastic‐wave sounding of solid bodies; an approach that may perform best when used as a pre‐conditioning tool for more accurate, gradient‐based imaging algorithms. Despite the fact that the formulation and results presented in this investigation are established on the basis of a boundary integral solution, the proposed methodology is readily applicable to other computational platforms such as the finite element and finite difference techniques. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Structural optimization using the boundary element method and topological derivative applied to a suspension trailing arm

This work investigates the optimization of elasticity problems using the boundary element method (BEM) as a numerical solver. A topological shape sensitivity approach is used to select the points showing the lowest sensitivities. As the iterative process evolves, the original domain has portions of material progressively removed in the less efficient areas until a given stop criterion is achieved. Two benchmark tests are investigated to demonstrate the influence of the boundary conditions on the final topology. Following this, a suspension trailing arm is optimized and a new design is proposed as an alternative to commercially available methods. A postprocedure of smoothing using Bézier curves was employed for the final topology of the trailing arm. This process allowed the external irregular shapes to be overcome. The BEM coupled with the topological derivative was shown to be an alternative to traditional optimization techniques using the finite element method. The present methodology was shown to be efficient for delivering optimal topologies with few iterations. All routines used were written in open code.     

Shape design sensitivity analysis in elasticity using the boundary element method

This paper deals with sensitivity analysis of the different functionals appearing in optimum shape design in elasticity using boundary element method (BEM). First, a general review concerning sensitivity analysis of the most usual functionals in elasticity is presented, based on the continuum approach. The accuracy in sensitivity analysis depends on the accuracy in evaluating strains and stresses on the boundary. A general procedure for strain calculation based upon some results of differential geometry of surfaces is shown. Another essential aspect in sensitivity analysis is the definition of the design velocity on the boundary, which defines the change in the geometry of the elastic solid. A computational treatment independent of the design variables used is presented, defining nodal values of the design velocity and taking advantage of the boundary element approximation. Finally, the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed procedures are assessed through several example problems.     

A boundary element formulation for design sensitivities in materially nonlinear problems

Summary This paper presents a formulation for the determination of design sensitivities for shape optimization in materially nonlinear problems. This approach is based on direct differentiation (DDA) of the relevant boundary element method (BEM) formulation of the problem. It combines the accuracy advantages of the BEM without the difficulty of dealing with strongly singular kernels. This approach provides a new avenue towards efficient shape optimization of small strain elastic-viscoplastic and elastic-plastic problems.With 1 Figure     

Shape optimization in three-dimensional linear elasticity by the boundary contour method

A variant of the usual boundary element method (BEM), called the boundary contour method (BCM), has been presented in the literature in recent years. In the BCM in three dimensions, surface integrals on boundary elements of the usual BEM are transformed, through an application of Stokes’ theorem, into line integrals on the bounding contours of these elements. The BCM employs global shape functions with the weights, in the linear combinations of these shape functions, being defined piecewise on boundary elements. A very useful consequence of this approach is that stresses, at suitable points on the boundary of a body, can be easily obtained from a post-processing step of the standard BCM. The subject of this paper is shape optimization in three-dimensional (3D) linear elasticity by the BCM. This is achieved by coupling a 3D BCM code with a mathematical programming code based on the successive quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm. Numerical results are presented for several interesting illustrative examples.     

Adaptive cross approximation of tensors arising in the discretization of boundary integral operator shape derivatives

The shape derivative of a dense N×N BEM matrix is a sparse three-way tensor with O(N²) non-zero entries, to which standard BEM acceleration techniques such as the adaptive cross approximation (ACA) and FMM cannot be directly applied. The tensor can be used to compute shape sensitivities, or via adjoint equations, the gradient of an objective function. Although for many PDEs, calculation of the tensor can be avoided by expressing the shape derivative of the solution as the solution of a related PDE, this approach is not always easily amenable to BEM. Therefore, the computation of shape derivatives via the sparse three-way tensor is a valuable alternative, provided that efficient acceleration techniques exist. We propose a new algorithm for the approximation of BEM shape derivative tensors based on ACA that achieves the same complexity and error bounds as ACA for the BEM matrix itself. Numerical examples show that despite the much larger amount of data involved, the tensor approximation is only moderately slower than the matrix approximation. We also demonstrate the method on a shape optimization problem from the literature.     

An improvement of the EDI method in linear elastic fracture mechanics by means of an a posteriori error estimator in G

In this paper, an error estimator that quantifies the effect of the finite element discretization error on the computation of the stress intensity factor in linear elastic fracture mechanics is presented. In order to obtain the proposed estimator, a shape design sensitivity analysis (SDSA) is applied to the fracture mechanics problem. Following this approach, one of the most efficient post‐processing techniques for computing the strain energy release rate G, the well‐known EDI method, may be interpreted as a continuum method of the SDSA. The proposed error estimator is based on the recovery of the gradient fields and its reliability has been checked by means of numerical problems, yielding very good estimations of the true error. The new estimator remarkably improves the results given by a previous error estimator, which is based on a discrete analytical approach of SDSA. As a consequence, the combination of the new error estimator and the result given by the EDI method provides a much more accurate estimation of G. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.