Abstract
Generalized design sensitivity analysis of constrained dynamic systems is a computationally intensive process that is well-suited for implementation on a modern supercomputer. A matrix oriented method for design sensitivity analysis, based on direct differentiation, is developed. An algorithm based on this development was implemented in a computer code which was then run on a Cray X-MP supercomputer. The implementation attempts to make full use of the vectorization capabilities of this machine. The numerical examples that were run on this implementation were compared with results presented in the literature in order to verify the program and to assess its computational performance.
The results show that the use of supercomputers for performing design sensitivity analysis of dynamic systems using this method produces a dramatic reduction in the computing time; it is anticipated that this will make the optimization of very large-scale dynamic systems computationally viable.
