MAO 2015 Student Paper Competition Nonintrusive Continuum Sensitivity Analysis for Aerodynamic Shape Optimization

Continuum Sensitivity Analysis (CSA) provides an analytic method to obtain derivatives of structural and fluid responses. CSA can be formulated in the domain velocity (total) or boundary velocity (local) form. The primary advantages of the presented local formulation are that analytic derivatives are computed and mesh sensitivity is avoided. Spatial Gradient Reconstruction has been applied for nonintrusive implementation of CSA 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 sensitivity boundary conditions are derived.