The topological asymptotic analysis provides the sensitivity of a givenshape functional with respect to an infinitesimal domain perturbation, likethe insertion of holes, inclusions, cracks. In this work we present thecalculation of the topological derivative for a class of shape functionalsassociated to the Kirchhoff plate bending problem, when a circular inclusionis introduced at an arbitrary point of the domain. According to theliterature, the topological derivative has been fully developed for a widerange of second-order differential operators. Since we are dealing here witha forth-order operator, we perform a complete mathematicalanalysis of the problem.
