RIGID BODY MOTION TEST AGAINST ERROR IN SEMIANALYTICAL SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS

This paper introduces a new method, the rigid-body motion test, for the analysis and detection of possible abnormal errors of shape design sensitivities determined by the semi-analytical method. It is found that rigid-body rotation of an individual finite element of a given type gives rise to non-vanishing semi-analytical pseudo-loads, the resultant moment of which can be applied to predict the abnormal error behaviour that has been reported for cases of semi-analytical sensitivity analysis in the literature. The proposed method is illustrated for a number of different types of elements in this paper.