Nonintrusive Continuum Sensitivity Analysis for Aerodynamic Shape Optimization

Abstract

Continuum Sensitivity Analysis (CSA) provides an analytic method to obtain derivatives of structural and fluid responses. The primary advantages of the presented local formulation are that analytic derivatives are computed and mesh sensitivity is avoided. With the use of Spatial Gradient Reconstruction technique, it has been shown that nonintrusive implementation of CSA is possible for structural systems. In the current work, we extend this to fluid systems. The specific requirements of a computational fluid dynamics solver for such a nonintrusive implementation are described in detail. Derivatives of flow variables have been calculated using CSA for two examples, (a) flow in a lid-driven cavity, and (b) subsonic-supersonic isentropic flow through a convergent divergent nozzle. The corresponding sensitivity equations and boundary conditions are derived.