The Development of a Geometry Engine with Analytic Sensitivities

The objective of this work is to develop and demonstrate geometry based sensitivity analysis capability that uses gradient-based optimization for conceptual designs. This work uses an object oriented environment with overloaded operators to generate analytic sensitivity trails to support automated gradient-based optimization solvers. It uses an established geometry engine to create and manipulate NURBS-based topologies. The preliminary results of the integration are presented using an aircraft wing with substructures, which demonstrate the ability to interactively synthesize geometric concepts.