9358132 Tortorelli This program implements analytical optimization capabilities for the design of nonlinear systems, specifically those encountered in manufacturing processes and product design. Ultimately these capabilities will be combined to create an environment suitable for the concurrent design of both the product and its manufacturing process. It will unite the disciplines of applied mechanics, numerical methods, manufacturing design, numerical programming, and product design. The primary contribution to this unification is the derivation and efficient computation of design sensitivity expressions. Currently, many excellent analysis capabilities exist to evaluate the performance of products and their manufacturing processes. For example, given a design, an engineer performs a finite element analysis to determine if the design is acceptable or unacceptable. Two questions then arise. (1) if the design is acceptable, how I can I improve it? and (2) If the design is unacceptable, how can I make it acceptable? Design sensitivity analysis and numerical optimization address both of these questions.
