01511nas a2200145   4500008004100000245007100041210006900112260001000181520099600191653006801187100002001255700002901275700002501304856003601329       2012                        en  d00aTopological sensitivity analysis for high order elliptic operators0 aTopological sensitivity analysis for high order elliptic operato  bSISSA3 aThe topological derivative is defined as the first term of the asymptotic expansion of a given shape functional with respect to a small parameter that measures the size of a singular domain perturbation. It has applications in many different fields such as shape and topology optimization, inverse problems, image processing and mechanical modeling including synthesis and/or optimal design of microstructures, fracture mechanics sensitivity analysis and damage evolution modeling. The topological derivative has been fully developed for a wide range of second order differential operators. In this paper we deal with the topological asymptotic expansion of a class of shape functionals associated with elliptic differential operators of order 2m, m>=1. The general structure of the polarization tensor is derived and the concept of degenerate polarization tensor is introduced. We provide full mathematical justifications for the derived formulas, including precise estimates of remainders.10aTopological derivative, Elliptic operators, Polarization tensor1 aAmstutz, Samuel1 aNovotny, Antonio, André1 aVan Goethem, Nicolas  uhttp://hdl.handle.net/1963/6343