OPTIMAL SHAPE DESIGN FOR A NOZZLE PROBLEM

In this paper, a gradient method is developed for the optimal shape de sign in a nozzle problem described by variational inequalities. It is known that this method can be used for the optimal shape design for sy stems described by partial differential equations (Pironneau [6]); it is used here for differential inequalities by taking limits of the exp ression resulting from an approximations scheme. The computations are done by the finite element method; the gradient of the criteria as a f unction of the coordinates nodes is computed, and the performance crit erion is then minimised by the gradient method.