[en] Shape optimization has to consider new progress in mesh generators to take full benefits from the use of free unstructured meshes in realistic industrial optimization. The main difficulty relies in the mesh flow determination during sensitivity analysis. The authors present their experience in applying smoothing techniques to transmit boundary perturbations to the inner mesh. It is explained how smoothing can be used to evaluate velocity fields in a simple and inexpensive way while guarantying reliability, efficiency and precision. A wide range of smoothing procedures are compared and confronted with other velocity field approaches to investigate their advantages and drawback. Finally, applications of smoothing procedures in the commercial optimization package OPTI-SAMCEF are described.
