Thermal optimization in transient thermoelasticity using response surface approximations

thermoelastic analysis of non-linear systems. The analysis forms the core component of a heating=cooling rate maximization problem in which the ordinates of the ambient temperature at equally spaced time intervals are chosen as the design variables. Polynomials or cubic splines are tted through the ordinates to describe the ambient temperature pro le required for the convective heat transfer analysis. An experimental design method based on D-optimality and a genetic algorithm was used to select the design points used to create the approximations. Linear response surfaces were found to be su ciently accurate, thereby minimizing the number of nite element analyses. Two examples of which one is a thick-walled pressure vessel are used to illustrate the methodology.