An optimization approach for torsion analysis of prismatic bars

Summary: Torsion analysis of prismatic bars has been treated by an optimization approach using the twist angle and the boundary values of the stress function as decision parameters. The sensitivity analysis of the objective function is performed by the adjoint variable method, wheras solutions of primary and adjoint problems are obtained by finite element method. The minimizations of the objective functions are done using the BFGS variable metric method. After checking the numerical algorithm with exact solutions, we investigate several example problems.