Abstract
It is found that the sum of response design sensitivity coefficients multiplied by sensitivity variables over the whole structure equals the product of a constant and response value. Sensitivity coefficients are required in engineering problems such as structural design, optimum design and back analysis. Exact sensitivity coefficients can be computed by sensitivity analysis, but its computational cost is considerably high especially when many iterations are needed. For that reason, practically, sensitivity coefficients are computed approximately by finite difference.
This paper proposes a very simple method of improvement of accuracy of approximate sensitivity coefficients computed by finite difference, using properties of sensitivity coefficients. And also the validity of this method is stated from the computational examples.
