Accurate computation of design sensitivities for dynamically loaded structures with displacement constraints

Design sensitivities for structures under transient dynamic loads with constraints on displacement can become very erroneous when proper care is not being taken in choosing the proper finite element mesh and also in selecting the appropriate number of basis modes. We approach this problem by systematically achieving an adaptive finite element mesh for a specified number of modes decided on the basis of some criteria and calculating the sensitivities thereafter. Numerous examples are solved to demonstrate how this integrated approach works and improves the results of sensitivity calculation.