Many optimization problems in electrical engineering consider a large number of design parameters. A sensitivity analysis identifies the design parameters with the strongest influence on the problem of interest. This paper introduces the adjoint variable method as an efficient approach to study sensitivities of nonlinear electroquasistatic problems in time domain. In contrast to the more common direct sensitivity method, the adjoint variable method has a computational cost nearly independent of the number of parameters. The method is applied to study the sensitivity of the field grading material parameters on the performance of a 320 kV cable joint specimen, which is modeled as a Finite Element nonlinear transient electroquasistatic problem. Special attention is paid to the treatment of quantities of interest, which are evaluated at specific points in time or space. It is shown that shown that the method is a valuable tool to study this strongly nonlinear and highly transient technical example.

翻译：电气工程中的许多优化问题涉及大量设计参数。敏感性分析可识别对目标问题影响最大的设计参数。本文提出伴随变量法，作为时域非线性电准静态问题敏感性分析的高效方法。与更常见的直接敏感性方法相比，伴随变量法的计算成本几乎与参数数量无关。该方法被应用于研究场控材料参数对320 kV电缆接头试样性能的敏感性，该问题建模为有限元非线性瞬态电准静态问题。特别关注在特定时间点或空间点评估的目标量的处理。结果表明，该方法是研究这一强非线性、高瞬态技术实例的有效工具。