Abstract: Research on the acoustic design sensitivity is significant for its ability to provide the optimized orientation for low noise design of radiating structures. When there are more than one design variables, the adjoint variable method is more efficient compared with the direct differentiation method. Based on finite element method and wave superposition approach, a new adjoint variable method is proposed. In this method, wave superposition approach replaces the boundary element method (BEM) used in the conventional adjoint method. Consequently, the restrictions in BEM such as singular integral are eliminated. Pulsating sphere and box model are analyzed using the proposed method, and the acoustic sensitivity results have better precision compared to the theoretical value and finite difference method. The advantage of computational efficiency is shown by the comparison of computational time with BEM.

Key words: Acoustic sensitivity, Adjoint variable method, Wave superposition