Author(s)

Z. Zhao

Abstract

A stress smoothing method through post processing - applications in design sensitivity analysis Z. Zhao School of Civil and Structural Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, 2263 Singapore ABSTRACT In the direct method for design sensitivity analysis, the stress distribution of the initial problem on the design boundary is used to derive the pertur- bation load, which then is applied as an external load for design sensitivity analysis. In this paper, the calculation for the boundary stress and stress gradient using the boundary element method is discussed, and a simple post processing method is proposed which can improve the accuracy of the per- turbation loads, thus leading to a better design sensitivity. Two numerical examples are used to demonstrate the post processing approach. INTRODUCTION During the last two decades, various approaches have been proposed for design sensitivity analysis, and some of them have been successfully em- ployed in

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