Sensitivity analysis of field for transient thermal composite plates

For the composite plates composed of layers with different materials, considering the heat conduction, convection and radiation boundary conditions, adopting the four-node rectangle element the finite element differential equations for its temperature field were derived by means of Galerkin method, and a general formulation about the sensitivity of the temperature field with respect to each design parameter was accomplished. A three-layer plate being taken as an example, its thermal sensitivities were simulated, and the results showed that the common part in the formulation has an obvious inertial effect in the sensitivity history, and the bigger the sensitivity absolute value is, the greater the inertial effect will be.