Parametric design sensitivity analysis of high-frequency structural-acoustic problems using energy finite element method

A design sensitivity analysis of high-frequency structural–acoustic problems is formulated and presented. The energy finite element method (EFEM) is used to predict structural–acoustic responses in the high frequency range, where the coupling between structural junctions and the structural–acoustic interface are modelled using power transfer coefficients. The continuum design sensitivity formulation is derived from the governing equation of EFEM and the discrete method is applied in the variation of the structural–structural and structural–acoustic coupling matrices. The direct differentiation and adjoint variable method are both developed for the sensitivity analysis, where the difficulty of the adjoint variable method is overcome by solving a transposed system equation. Parametric design variables such as panel thickness and material damping are considered for sensitivity analysis, and numerical sensitivity results show excellent agreement as compared to analytical finite difference results