This work is concerned with the development of a framework to solve shape optimization problems for transient heat conduction problems within the context of isogeometric analysis (IGA). A general objective functional is used to accommodate both shape optimization and passive control problems under transient conditions. An adjoint sensitivity analysis, which accounts for possible discontinuities in the objective functional, is performed analytically and subsequently discretized within the context of IGA. The gradient of the objective functional is used in a descent algorithm to solve optimization problems. Numerical examples are presented to validate and demonstrate the capacity to manage thermal fields under transient conditions.

A crucial problem of continuous adjoint shape sensitivity analysis is the numerical implementation of its lengthy formulations. In this paper, the numerical implementation of continuous adjoint shape sensitivity analysis is presented for transient heat conduction problems using isogeometric analysis, which can serve as a tutorial guide for beginners. Using the adjoint boundary and loading conditions derived from the design objective and the primary state variable fields, the numerical analysis procedure of the adjoint problem, which is solved backward in time, is demonstrated. Following that, the numerical integration algorithm of the shape sensitivity using a boundary approach is provided. Adjoint shape sensitivity is studied with detailed explanations for two transient heat conduction problems to illustrate the numerical implementation aspects of the continuous adjoint method. These two problems can be used as benchmark problems for future studies.