Higher-order sensitivity analysis of finite element method by automatic differentiation
Abstract
To design optimal mechanical structures, design sensitivity analysis technique using higher order derivatives are important. However, usual techniques for computing the derivatives, for example numerical differentiation methods, are hard to apply to real scale structures because of the large amount of computational time and the accumulation of computational errors. To overcome the problem, we have studied a new approach for higher order sensitivity analysis of the finite element method using automatic differentiation techniques. The method automatically transforms FORTRAN code to special purpose code which computes both the value of the given functional dependence and their derivatives. The algorithm used in the method automatically and efficiently computes accurate values of higher order partial derivatives of a given functional dependence on many variables. This paper reports the basic principles of the automatic differentiation method and some experiments on the sensitivity analysis of mechanical structures. The original program of structural analysis by the finite element method is implemented in FORTRAN, which is developed by the first author. Using the proposed method, we get more accurate sensitivity and prediction values compared with usual numerical differentiation. We also discuss the effectiveness of the proposed approach for the sensitivity analysis of the mechanical structures.
- Publication:
-
Computational Mechanics
- Pub Date:
- July 1995
- DOI:
- 10.1007/BF00369867
- Bibcode:
- 1995CompM..16..223O