This paper describes an efficient method to calculate sensitivity of shell structures. Sensitivity parameters of interest are shape and thickness of shell structures. An 18-node hexahedral shell is used in element formulation with inclusion of proposed methodologies to alleviate various locking phenomena. Automatic mesh generation scheme using the design element concept and isoparametric technique is employed to avoid re-meshing structures every iteration of optimization process. Numerical examples are performed and compared with exact solutions and forward finite differences to investigate the accuracy of proposed element formulation and sensitivity analysis.
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