  Efficient computation of sensitivities is a promising approach for
efficiently of designing and optimizing high voltage direct current cable
joints. This paper presents the adjoint variable method for coupled nonlinear
transient electrothermal problems as an efficient approach to compute
sensitivities with respect to a large number of design parameters. The method
is used to compute material sensitivities of a 320kV high voltage direct
current cable joint specimen. The results are validated against sensitivities
obtained via the direct sensitivity method.
